computer-go: Why Ko

[Joshua Berryman <joshuab@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I know ko is supposed to be one of the most subtle and important aspects
of the game, but its a funny rule in that no-one can gain anything by
breaking it: 

If you take the rule as `never repeat a previous board state' then if a
program does do this then wahey! its back to square one. :)

 I was just wandering if I should trouble to include a ko-checker in my RL
based program: hopefully, it should prefer a quick reward to a delayed one
and learn to follow the ko rule of its own accord.

Sanity check?

Josh