Go variants server

Not sure which thread this might fit in but just saw a link in a blog post

I feel some people here would like it, and maybe could suggest other variants that could be hosted :slight_smile:

(Or imagine if OGS did a collab to host Crazy variants :slightly_smiling_face: - I know it’s probably not even near the urgency or heavily requested list)

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There was a young guy streaming with an older guy (beard and glasses (possibly named Dave (not Dave89))) several months back. He mentioned a variant where one color begins with a solid square perimeter already surrounding, I think he said, 13 lines. The older guy says “Oh, you’re talking about skyboxing; we did that in university but back in my day we did it with 9x9.” If the underdog makes a living group inside, they win, regardless of points.

I got to thinking about it - seems like a fun variant, maybe as a training exercise for people wanting to practice either invading or defending a large area. Allowing for game setup with variable size skyboxes could facilitate a natural handicap effect.

It’s not really a Go variant I suppose, just Goesque.

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Something like this? It looks like there’s quite a few “White to Live” variants described at Sensei’s library.

As always, there’s an open invitation to implement this at govariants.com, but actually I think this variant can be played just as well at OGS using the “Fork game” feature. Of course black needs to agree to resign once white lives, but I don’t see an easy way around that regardless of the server!

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This is a category which sparks imagination.

Some OGF related reading :slight_smile:

and then similarly

(^^ slightly sad some of the videos in this thread went private)

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Also Antti Tormanen gave a lecture recently enough

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You can also set Komi to 360.5 (292.5 if you subtract the 4 * 17 stones on the edge) points, then any stone that lives is enough for white to win.

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Here is a handy dandy tool for starting games like this on OGS.

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