Who do we need to speak with to get default Komi on smaller boards changed?

[shinuito]

@ente_choto

I’m just genuinely curious who is the lever mover that can get this done because all attempts to request this previously have been ignored without providing an explanation on why 5.5 is forced on all rulesets.

I think the answer is just that’s the way it is, and has been for a long time. (as in why it is “forced” on other rulesets.)

Komi 5.5? and why no nigiri?

http://senseis.xmp.net/?HandicapForSmallerBoardSizes We use the old japanese recommendation for handicaps and komi, which is 5.5 for an even 9x9 game

It predates katago and strong AI by quite a while, so it’s not some malicious attempt to shun any AI inspired evaluations, or to make sure that Black has a better winrate for some reason.

Similarly at the time it sounds like people had looked into it and thought it seemed reasonably fair.

Komi needs correction on 9 x 9

This is actually a hot area of contention. Yilun Yang 7p thought 2.5 was the right komi for 9x9. (See commented game #1.) This seems common-sense because the board is so small. But he’s in the minority. Virtually all professional 9x9 games have used 5.5 komi. That’s TV games, formal tournaments, everything. The RICOH Pair Go cup even used 6.5 for 9x9 decision games. Say what? It may be helpful to discuss methods of deriving komi. Similar to 19x19, there’s basically two schools of thought: ideal…

Anyway,

@ente_choto

I think for handicap games any scale that lowers komi in steps of 2 points would work.

Any particular reason for choosing steps of 2 points? I think the scale (difference in players rating) and the size of the steps are kind of important. That would include any handicap stones.

@ente_choto

Data from GoQuest shows that 7 komi does not produced lopsided winrates for white.

I think if you could link that data it might also help, assuming @anoek has time to look into it.

I personally don’t really mind what the komi is, maybe it would be good to make the komi the same on 9x9, 13x13 and 19x19 only dependent on the ruleset.