Life In 19x19

The usual situation used to show that territory scoring is sharper than area scoring is this one :

$$ Territory sharper than area \n White to play
$$ -------------
$$ . . X . a O .
$$ . . X X X O .
$$ . . X . b O .
$$ . . X O O O .
$$ . . X O . . .
$$ . . X O . . .

Under area scoring, it ...

I have no explanation for the fact that in situation b), a ko threat of 10, 12 or 14 points are worth exactly the same in actual score.

I think I know.
In this situation, if white takes the ko, Black executes the threat.
If White prevents the threat, Black will execute another identical threat ...

I understand it this way : it is logical to say that recapturing in a ko is forbidden, because it's exactly like if I was removing my opponent's move.
Thus forbidding this is a "logical necessity".

But if I do so indirectly, after a long cycle, the logic is less clear. I have not prevented my ...

I have setup positions where Black has two large ko threats and White has two small ko threats.
Here are the conclusions of the tree exploration based on real scores, chinese scoring.

The ko is still the same : 15 points of swing value (japanese counting), no follow-ups, nothing left to play after ...

Thank you John, I like this article a lot, and mostly agree with it.

I didn't understand the part about the ko rule. Is it the (simple) ko rule or the superko rule which is supposedly a consequence of the axioms?

As far as I understand, Chen Zuyuan suggests that the superko rule must be used ...

The tree exploration confirms that taking the ko is the best move : Black wins +17.5.
Answering the 6 points threat, Black wins +15.5 only.

I'll try and see what happens if Black has two large threats and White two small threats.

(;GM[1]FF[4]CA[UTF-8]AP[CGoban:3]ST[2]
RU[Chinese]SZ[19]KM[7.50]
PW ...

Maybe compare with this?
https://senseis.xmp.net/?KoThreatRuleOfThumb

Thank you !
It works perfectly in the position that I posted.

The following conditions for Bill's rule of thumb are met:
we have a simple, ordinary ko with 3 plays between a Black win and a White win,
we can ignore the ...

Hello,
I've been thinking about the value of ko threats.

I've created a position where there is one ko, and several ko threats. I scored every line until the end of the game, in order to see what's the real value of each move (not the estimated value), and see what ko threat should be answered ...

Hello,
When I click "Add the file", I've got a message saying "Could not upload attachment to ./files/3963_2b41f2bb5b95ff62a21737e3bb7ac780.".

Is it just me ?

Or, can anyone try to find where the Japanese rules allow this type of non-alternating play during game-play, not during life-and-death confirmation or end-of-game dame filling & reinforcement. Or try to find some Japanese tradition of playing moves and then deciding to pass for a bit to allow non ...

Why do you think the black stones are dead? This goes against my understanding of Life and Death confirmation in the Japanese Rules. The 6 black stones are alive. Dame filling and reinforcement are part of confirming life and death.

If the 6 black stones were alive, then there would be no dame ...

On the whole, I think Area Scoring is a better design. But Stone Scoring is better design than Territory or Area because the scoring is directly related to the play mechanic. Area scoring needs additional rules for scoring.

That's right, stone scoring has fewer rules. The winner is the one with ...

Does anyone believe that Go should should include additional game-pieces for tracking the current turn and placing a token having the turn number of the board when a stone is captured?

If not, then how is Go without rules requiring cycles to be tracked not the best designed version of the game ...

Whether the ko can be retaken after pass (in normal play) is not completely clear but may be guessed as passing for a ko (then retake it) is also the basis in hypothetical play. The Japanese rule are clear. The rules only allow for a stone to be played after another stone. There is no rule allowing ...

When I wrote that go was a game which rules were not completely defined (with Japanese rules in mind), I was not talking about superko, which is an easily solved problem. I was talking about the removal of "dead" stones.
What is a dead stone is very difficult to define.