Multi-stone go variant

[ericf]

Rather than hijack an existing thread
http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=13358&start=0
I'm starting a new one.

Has anyone ever heard of multi-move go, where you play more than one stone per turn? It might be interesting. For example, if you were allowed 3 stones per turn then an group would need 4 eyes to be safe.

One reason I think this might be interesting is that if you allow 10 stones per turn the branching factor would be about 400^10~10^26 which is much (!) higher than ordinary go, so this game might be really hard for computers to play. This is analogous to arimaa (a game designed to be hard for computers to play) but on steroids.

Also, even for 2 stones per turn, this seems like an interesting twist on regular go and might be fun to play. It seems like there would be a lot more fighting and big kills as you increase the number of stones per turn.

[Fool]

I've read about people playing a normal game of go with the difference, that 3 times per match every player could play 2 consecutive moves. It breaks the game to much. You might have fun playing around with it, but don't be surprised if you don't find any opponents who are interested in playing this in the long run.

[ajventi]

My seven year old came up with a variant where each side plays five stones in a row. We played on a 9x9 and as anyone can imagine, with four liberties being atari, it was quite interesting. I believe we ran out of stones before the game was really finished.

[hyperpape]

I've read about people playing a normal game of go with the difference, that 3 times per match every player could play 2 consecutive moves. It breaks the game to much. You might have fun playing around with it, but don't be surprised if you don't find any opponents who are interested in playing this in the long run.

It makes for a fun handicap if you only give the option to one player. It's about as big as a 9 stone handicap, though it's very dependent on how well the extra stones are used. If you can hold out and play them at the point of greatest need, it's impossible to overcome the handicap. But if you let yourself play them early, than it's not much more than a few stones.