At 08:37 AM 9/29/2000 +0200, you wrote:
go is a game of perfect information. therefore there is a strategy by which one player or the other can guarantee a win or a draw (see your local mathematician for a proof). this just says the game is deterministic.After a good night's sleep, I gathered enough self-confidence in order to make here a few statements that I believe are true (even if I can't prove anything). I hope they won't be too controversial - but on the other hand, better to start an academic dispute than be ignored! :-) * Black has a winning strategy
maybe not. you might have to choose a different line that guarantees a win by so much or there might not be one in which case the other player has the guarantee.* Komi is irrelevant for perfect play
* Handicap is also irrelevant for the discussion.
same argument. although these are very counter intuitive, it could be that way. hth --- ray tayek http://home.earthlink.net/~rtayek/ orange county java users group http://www.ocjug.org/ want privacy? http://www.freedom.net/ hate spam? http://samspade.org/ssw/