Life In 19x19

In a real game of Go, players have 381 stones in total. It is therefore conceivable, in theory, that at a certain point one player might no longer be able to play because he has run out of stones. What would happen in such a situation?

The comments on the Tromp-Taylor Rules state this:

Each player has an arbitrarily large set of stones of his own color.

So under Tromp-Taylor rules running out of stones is not possible. What about other rules?

Well, it is only 361 total. And there are only 361 intersections on the board. Many times I have played a game and we have had to exchange prisoners. If there are not enough prisoners to exchange then probably one person is so far behind that he probably should have resigned anyway. It should not be a problem under Chinese rules.

I think only Ing rules specify each player has only 180 stones each. I think all the other rule sets assume an unlimited supply (which you can do with a prisoner exchange, or stealing from the bowls on the table next to you).

Most physical sets come with anywhere between a minimum of 150 stones each to at least 180 stones each.

DrStraw wrote:Well, it is only 361 total. And there are only 361 intersections on the board. Many times I have played a game and we have had to exchange prisoners. If there are not enough prisoners to exchange then probably one person is so far behind that he probably should have resigned anyway. It should not be a problem under Chinese rules.

What about after a long, drawn out ko?

Isn't a long drawn-out ko an example of a situation where you could exchange prisoners?

Ah, prisoner exchange, very clever, I hadn't thought of that (that's how inexperienced I am). I guess if running out of stones is not something that can happen in real-world play, nor is it a scenario considered by any specific rules, then I won't have to implement it in software.