I am curious to see if anyone has tried Four-Player Go, which I have seen translated from Korean as Flower Go? I can't find much information on it beyond the fact that others have tried it. My idea is for a board of 27x27, calculated from the use of four complete sets of stones on a larger board (or four half-sets on a 19x19 goban), with the understanding that players remain honest and do not preconceive alliances, &c. My second set of stones arrives Friday, at which point I will try it out (19x19 size), but I would be very interested to hear if anyone else has played, or has suggestions regarding gameplay.

_________________
Death in the hane.

On a 19x19 board how is this different from pair go?

I believe he's referring to a 4-color go variant

_________________
Tactics yes, Tact no...

I'm not sure I'm correct here, but I thought pair go was two teams, whereas I plan to play with each of the players fighting independently against everyone. The point (hopefully) being that anyone who seems to be working with you could stab you in the back at any time, so protecting and attacking in more uncertain circumstances. I don't know how well it will work until trying it, but it seems that it could be fun with four players of close rank.

_________________
Death in the hane.

I actually found the stones as well on YMI:

http://www.ymimports.com/p-1625-4-color ... ze-33.aspx

_________________
Death in the hane.

I think the biggest issue with this variant is ending the game though.

Whoever is in the lead will be set upon by the other 3 players, 3 moves to 1 move is enough to kill a lot of things.

I think to prevent that, you would need some way to create coalition victories, A way for players to gain something by not teaming up against the single player with the most points.

Perhaps something along these lines:
------------------------------------------------------------

At the end of the game, you create the following set of relationships, each player will be assigned

An Ally - Determined to be the player with whom you share the fewest borders (1 border consists of 2 adjacent stones after all dame are filled

A Nemesis - Determined to be the player with whom you share the most borders

You then gain 1/2 of the points of the ally and lose 1/2 the points of the nemesis.

In this way, one player on the board will have a vested interest in helping you protect your territory. But you still have an interest in good endgame play to eliminate the potential power of the nemesis.

_________________
Tactics yes, Tact no...

We played this at the European Go Congress in Bordeaux (with painted stones). It was good fun. You get all sorts of bizarre life and death situations where one players can kill, one can makes seki, others playing helps the defender etc. Shapes that are strong in normal Go (e.g. ponnuki) are surprisingly weak. The changing alliances, ganging up on people etc. were all part of the fun, much like the board game Risk. We just counted points at the end as normal.

I played this once online in another go forum (one for Spanish speaking people, but I don't remember the link/name currently). It was quite a lot of fun, a mix of Go and Diplomacy, more than Risk

_________________
Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

_________________
a1h1 [1d]: You just need to curse the gods and defend.
Good Go = Shape.
Associação Portuguesa de Go

OT @RBerenguel

_________________
a1h1 [1d]: You just need to curse the gods and defend.
Good Go = Shape.
Associação Portuguesa de Go

Thanks, Phelan.