Hi everyone, I’m a Go beginner. In my local area, official tournaments almost exclusively use Chinese rules. However, I spend most of my time practicing on OGS (Japanese rules) rather than Foxwq.
Do I need to adjust my strategy when switching between these two rulesets? Are there specific situations where a move is “good” under one set but “bad” (or neutral) under the other? Thanks for the help!
No. Don’t worry about that.
ty!!!
Basically, the way you play the game is the same under Japanese rules and Chinese rules.
One important difference appears at the end of the game when filling the dame (neutral points).
Under Japanese rules, if you play inside your own territory, you lose one point.
Under Chinese rules, however, both your stones and your territory are counted, so playing inside your own territory does not lose a point.
In other words, if you feel uneasy, you can play inside your own territory without suffering a large loss.
However, filling dame itself counts as one move in Chinese scoring, so you should always fill all the dame at the end.
If you leave dame and let your opponent fill them instead, you will lose points because of that.
The situation with half-point ko fights at the end can also differ from Japanese rules, but I am not very familiar with that part myself, so I apologize.
Another difference is the “bent four in the corner.”
Under Japanese rules, bent four in the corner is defined as dead unconditionally.
Under Chinese rules, instead of relying on that definition, the game is resolved on the board: at the end of the game, the ko threats in one’s own territory are filled with stones, and the position is played out until the opponent inevitably loses the ko and the group is captured.
In this sense, one advantage of Chinese rules is that it avoids such implicit conventions that exist in Japanese rules.
Wow , so many things to notice about! Thanks a lot!
Actually what is called “japanese rules” on OGS, and almost on every server is not the japanese rules we have when playing on the wood board. It’s kind of adaptation. For example when players disagree on the final status of a group there would be a specific stage to find the answer by playing and then the game should go back to where they left. Special cases under the japanese rules are usually not considered. I’m even not sure +and curious 
if the dead L4 in the corner, which is the most common one is considered by the implementation.
So better think that the japanese rules online is more like something be a rework of the Chinese rules to make it similar looking at the japanese one (with the territories scoring)
Both players can lose points by playing unnecessary moves in territory (offering free prisoners or reinforcing already strong enough groups) AND if your opponent don’t answer locally by passing or by playing neutral points (which apply de facto to both sets of rules unless there is nowhere better play to do) so yes it’s advised to finish first all the neutral points and to pass as soon as there are no more.
The last well known difference is a difference of 1 point which appears sometimes between both scoring (hey 1 point is not nothing after all! ) This is due because the japanese rules don’t care about who will play the last move. This is corrected in the AGA rule with a system of giving a prisoner for each pass.
On Internet whatever the rules, I strongly advise to finish all the boundaries including all the neutral points. In real life no one should criticize you for doing the same.
You have a lot of time in front of you before getting into the details really, simply finish your boundaries neutral included and you ll be fine for a very long time.
Not saying it’s not interesting but unnecessary at your stage IMHO.
A beginner won’t understand what this means, but the basic idea is that for an “honor ko” in Chinese rules you can (and should) use dame as ko threats, because filling 1 dame as a threat and then another after the opponent fills is worth 2 points, whereas the ko is worth less than 2 points.
But for a beginner, the key point is this: yes, there are real strategic ramifications, but these are going to amount to at most a 1-3 point difference between the scoring rules, and in 99% of games no more than a 1 point difference. As a beginner, should should play exactly the same in Japanese and Chinese rules. If you think you’ve identified a way you should play because you’re using the one rule set rather than the other, more often than not you’re simply going to be mistaken.
Besides those small differences on scoring, one big difference is the “free handicap stone placement” in case the tournament uses handicaps. Espesially if you’re a beginner, thus it’s more likely that you end up playing as black, you should be aware that you are allowed to put your handicap stones wherever you want ^^
For scoring, just play till the very end and fill all dames before passing. If you’re not sure how to count it, just ask for help, usually dans are extremely happy to show off their counting skillz ^___^
About handicap there is a difference in the scoring, because the handicap stones are not counted under the japanese rules (makes it a little bit harder for white with the Chinese rules, especially at high handicap ofc). Just to not be surprised it doesn’t change the regular strategies to play handicap go.
I do not think I will pay that much attention to JP vs CN rules, even if I ever reach Dan level.
I will simply remember to fill Dame accordingly, and avoid placing stone in own territories unnecessarily, always settle KO/non-certain-death group.
Stronger players, please correct me if I am (terribly) wrong.