Hello go enthusiasts, I’ve been thinking about 2 experimental variations for casual play and I’d like to hear your opinions.
- Auto komi without on-board handicap
I got this idea from a Japanese pro’s blog, in which the author says “13路では置き碁より逆コミの方が面白いゲームになると思っていまして” (translation: I believe, in 13 board, reverse komi makes for a more interesting game than on-board handicap.)
A method for calculating komi could potentially take into account the finer rating digits.
- Starting from a few semi-random stones
A few could mean 3 for example. I think it makes sense to exclude non-diagonal neighbors and 1st or 2nd lines.
This idea comes from Fischerandom chess. In Fischerandom chess the configuration is symmetric; however, it might be more interesting to allow non-symmetric placements, even though it might sometimes lead to an unfair configuration. If the weaker configuration is white, the pie rule, in which the second player can swap colors instead of placing a stone, could partially alleviate this unfair configuration problem.