Button Go but for territory scoring with area style rules
Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2026 12:35 pm
What always annoyed me about area scoring is the lack of precision. But most button go rulesets like AGA take territory counting and make it imprecise like area scoring.
It might not seem like a big deal, but it actually is at the very highest levels of play. This is because komi is set to 7.5, which is worse for Black winrates.
At the same time, area scoring rules are much simpler. It would be preferable if a button go rule did the opposite, take area scoring rules as a base, but if Black takes the last dame, let White catch back up, while if Black takes the button it does nothing (except deny White the opportunity to catch up, of course, so it does serve a purpose)
Has anyone designed a ruleset like this? I just posted my proposal for it in the group tax thread, but it's actually a separate issue
viewtopic.php?p=283525#p283525
It might not seem like a big deal, but it actually is at the very highest levels of play. This is because komi is set to 7.5, which is worse for Black winrates.
At the same time, area scoring rules are much simpler. It would be preferable if a button go rule did the opposite, take area scoring rules as a base, but if Black takes the last dame, let White catch back up, while if Black takes the button it does nothing (except deny White the opportunity to catch up, of course, so it does serve a purpose)
Has anyone designed a ruleset like this? I just posted my proposal for it in the group tax thread, but it's actually a separate issue
viewtopic.php?p=283525#p283525