Random Gaps + Pie Rule

Random Starting Position + Flexible Komi isn’t a very catchy name.

What about Lacunar Go or Lacunal Go, or just Hole Go?

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lacuna#English

Or RaSP?

I suppose “random starting position” also makes it sound like there’ll be random stones on the board rather than there’ll be random holes on the board.

Maybe something like hole go + flexible Komi, or hole go + pie rule might be better, I dunno :slight_smile:

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Here you go, I changed the name, but I abused my power as creator of this topic to overrule your suggestions :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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Me too! 3 holes for round 3?

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Sure why not :slight_smile:

I’ll see what updates I can make to the board this evening or tomorrow when I’ve time :slight_smile:

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Let’s try this board:

image

I’ll set komi at 7 points (area scoring).

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I guess I’ll go for Black. (I was tempted to play White because the first move looks tricky to pick :stuck_out_tongue: )

I’ll try something interesting anyway :slight_smile:

I see you make the image clickable, after I went to manually make it :man_facepalming:
I’ll also (try) make the image clickable :slight_smile:

Also have fun :slight_smile:

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Maybe this has already been discussed, but I want to make some points here about the possibilities of islands (i.e., disconnected graphs) with this variant.

With just two holes, it’s possible to have an island of one point

In the below board (https://shinuito.github.io/9x9board.html?neu=a2b1), A2 and B1 have been removed, leaving A1 as a one point island (even though it is not marked).

For this board, playing at A1 would either be impossible (if suicide is forbidden) or strategically pointless (if suicide is allowed). Hence, one-point islands are also effectively removed from the board.

A three point island is a gote endgame move

With three holes (https://shinuito.github.io/9x9board.html?neu=a3b2c1), you might create a three-point island

Here, one player should eventually play at A1 to secure that island in gote, so this would likely be played only in the endgame.

A two point island can be fought over by superko

We could also have a two-point island (https://shinuito.github.io/9x9board.html?neu=a3b2b1)

In this case, the players could fight a ko over control of this island, but it seems that the only way this fight could ever be resolved is for superko to eventually prevent one of the players from retaking (without making a self-atari eye fill elsewhere). I think control over this island might just go to whoever has the most territory minus group tax on the rest of the board. If the score is close enough that group tax and control over the island makes a difference, then maybe the presence of this island effectively converts the game from area scoring to stone scoring??

Starting play on this island might also behave like a ten-thousand year ko, since the first to play has to find the first ko “threat” (which can just be any legal play elsewhere).

Larger symmetric splits can lead to a fair game (0 komi)

With more holes, it could be possible to divide the board symmetrically, for example:


https://shinuito.github.io/9x9board.html?neu=a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8j9


https://shinuito.github.io/9x9board.html?neu=e1e2e3e4e5e6e7e8e9

In these cases, White could always play mirror go to produce a tied result, so the fair komi should be zero.

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Now that you mentioned this I have a confession to make. I conducted an experiment in the Alan Turing Nines Title Tournament 2019.Here are the relevant games:

https://online-go.com/game/20181299
https://online-go.com/game/20181298

Please don’t ban me, I swear I didn’t repeat this! :see_no_evil:

Onegaishimasu :blush:

G5:
image

(The board is very confusing, I just plopped a stone down wherever for my first move)

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I’ll try D3:

image

@yebellz examples are really interesting, I hadn’t really thought about it, especially when trying to make a semi-functional editor of sorts. Definitely some things one should think about if interested in making a proper workable version. The ones with fair komi of zero are interesting from a theoretical standpoint too :slight_smile:

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F3:

image

G7: (to be greedy and see what happens)

image

D4:
image

E4:

image

D2:

image

Let’s go E3:

image

Tricky clamp :slight_smile:

E2!

(I might be lazy and skip the diagrams every now and then)

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I think that’s fair :slight_smile:

image

F4: I have a plan, but it’s not necessarily a good plan

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This result looks a little too good for black…

…so let’s try G3 instead:
image