If Go Were Going To Evolve, How Would It, And Why?

Serious Answer 1: A gradual switch to New Zealand Rules, which I think are awesome and without peer. They are very concise/elegant, avoid most of the edge cases which require difficult rulings (Japanese being the worst in this department), and use komi of 7 (see next answer).

Serious Answer 2: Integer komi (7). Modern AI has made a rather strong case that 7.5 is the correct tie-break komi, but that it slightly favors white. Therefore it makes sense that with komi of 7, AI should expect a draw. If this conjecture is correct, then I believe it would be best to use this as komi so that best play by both players does not end in one of them winning. Draws should still be quite rare, even at high levels.

Biased Answer: Widespread adoption of Thue-Morse Go (TMG). Komi is a rather inelegant solution to the first player advantage which turns every game into a handicap game: one player starts out behind and must make up the deficit. In TMG, first player advantage should (possibly; this is just conjecture at this point) reduce to negligible amounts by the end of a typical game. It also introduces more texture to reading and gives rise to emergent whole-board tactics which depend on the interplay of sente threats across the board. :asterisk:

:asterisk: If you think the TMG is just a ha-ha, then go read it again.

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