For example, consider this passage from Kageyama from "Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go":
Quote: I could not match the Meijin in either skill, stamina, or spirit. The only place where I could compete with him on equal terms was in guessing even or odd correctly to see who took black and who white. I decided therefore, to gamble everything on this guess, and spent my days and nights feverishly working out black openings. This was my one chance. I was resigned to losing if I drew white.
I'm not sure what date this quoted game might be from, since the concept of komi in Japan only started post-WWII.
I'm sure John Fairbairn knows exactly the details, but I don't think it was common until the 1960s, so Kageyama may be reflecting on the fact that he needed the extra benefit of being Black to beat the Meijin.
Komi was 4.5 in this game.
Personally, I think that few amateur players play good enough yose and have close enough games that make komi matter.
So you think that amateurs should bid to a higher komi then?
RBerenguel wrote:With komi bidding (or pie rule) games should be considered totally even for rating purposes. That's the whole point of bidding/split rules
komi is discrete, hence it wouldnt be "totally" fair. say with 6.5 komi black has slight advantage, with 7.5 komi white has slight advantage. however, if you allow fraction komis when bidding, then it should be totally fair
fractions of course affecting odds of either player being declared winner, in case of a tie on the board after integer komi.
Hmm, so for the non-bidding case this is equivalent to saying "All half point white wins are now a coin toss". For the bidding case I suppose it could slightly discourage someone who wants to try and game the system to get black more often (depending on the specifics of your bidding rules of course). I'm not sure how strong of an effect it would be in the latter case.
