Is an even game on 9X9 really worth 6.5 komi for white ?

[Keith White]

Look, I'm really, really new to this but, have read a little and grasp the very basics I guess and until a few days ago I only played 9X9 with handicap stones in 'my' favour and Japanese rules 'Territory'.

So, I ventured over to KGS and registered. Played some 27kyu bot and lost by 0.5 points.

Afterwards I found myself asking why, against an obvious beginner ('me'), or anyone at my level ('unknown') why white gets 6.5 komi regardless of opponent and or/ board size?

I know it seems an accepted standard for komi but why is it 6.5 independent of board size or opponent standard?

If this is a FAQ, I apologise.

[skydyr]

Look, I'm really, really new to this but, have read a little and grasp the very basics I guess and until a few days ago I only played 9X9 with handicap stones in 'my' favour and Japanese rules 'Territory'.

So, I ventured over to KGS and registered. Played some 27kyu bot and lost by 0.5 points.

Afterwards I found myself asking why, against an obvious beginner ('me'), or anyone at my level ('unknown') why white gets 6.5 komi regardless of opponent and or/ board size?

I know it seems an accepted standard for komi but why is it 6.5 independent of board size or opponent standard?

If this is a FAQ, I apologise.

There's no clear indication that it should be exactly the same for any given board size. That said, while there are less points on a smaller board, there is also a much larger first-move advantage since white has fewer moves to overcome it. I tend to prefer white with 6.5 komi on 9x9 boards, but I think that this may be more related to my playstyle than its inherent unfairness, and I certainly win and lose a fair proportion of 9x9 games with either colour against relatively evenly matched opponents.

The other side of this is that with a greater relative komi, the style with which you approach the game needs to be more different from one side or the other. On a 9x9 board, black needs to be quite active to overcome the komi, and playing simply to just split the board down the relative middle is practically a guaranteed loss since the komi is almost equal to a full line of the board.

[jeromie]

As a complete beginner, it can make sense to play an even opponent on a 9x9 board without komi. However, on a server like KGS the rules for ranked games are implemented the same way for all ranks. If this were not the case, it would mess up rank comparisons across the server.

The system won't use komi indiscriminately, however. If there is a difference of a single rank between opponents, white gets no komi. If there is a difference of more than one rank, black gets handicap stones and white will have no komi. As your ranks goes up or down, the particular handicap will be adjusted. The idea is to set the handicap such that you will have a good game against opponents of a variety of strengths. When your rank is unknown, the system doesn't have any way to know that the appropriate handicap might be.

As you gain experience, you'll definitely find that komi is necessary to have a good game against an even opponent on a 9x9 board.

[DrStraw]

Probably not. White most likely needs a little more. On the smaller board there is less time or space to overcome black's inherent advantage in going first and so needs more compensation.

[oren]

It seems that 6.5 for territory and 7.5 for area scoring ends up being a good komi for 9x9.