Handicap stones issue

When creating a 9x9 match, a handicap of none and 1 give no stones, but a handicap of 2 or more give 2 or more stones.

Does this issue also affect auto match?

Edit: this is true for 13x13 and 19x19

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I believe that is intended behavior.

Reference: Handicap Placement at Sensei's Library

One handicap stone

There is no specific placement for one stone, since this would be equivalent to dictating black’s first move. Black plays first as in a non-handicap game, but benefits from the absence of komi.

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Yeah, handicap 1 is actually just handicap \frac{1}{2} on OGS and a lot of other places. See Proper Handicap at Sensei's Library

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Not just handicap 1 being less, 3 stones handicap is a 2.5 stones advantage, 6 stones handicap is a 5.5 stones advantage, etc.

Every other place I’ve ever seen handicaps used, it’s not like OGS is being weird here.

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Maybe everyone else is weird too. :wink:
Otherwise you’re absolutely right to emphasize what you wrote, not just hide it behind a link, like I did.

There is no one stone handicap that results in a physical stone.

On 19x19, for instance, white’s komi might be 7.5, 0.5, or even negative komi. At two stones, it’s worth putting stones on the board, and at least in Japanese rules or tradition there are very specific spots for 2-6 stones.

7, 8 and 9 handicap are mostly teaching games for newer players or when hardly anybody is at the club.

Usually black starts by playing one stone and white gets ~7 komi. How would you call a game, where black starts by playing two stones and white gets ~7 komi?

Weird.

More seriously though we do this in our local club occasionally. We played with 4 stones handicap and 6.5 komi for white just last week. On 9x9 we often play with reverse komi of a few points since me just taking black with zero komi isn’t enough but 2 stones is by far too much.

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