Re: computer-go: komi

[Erik van der Werf <E.vanderWerf@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Don Dailey wrote:
>    1. What do you believe is fair komi for 9x9 Go?

There was a thread on this at rec.games.go recently, you might want to
look at that.


> 
>    2. Would 2 very strong players need a different komi than 2 very weak players in
>       order to equalize?

To equalize the probability of winning? Most likely: yes.


>    3. Does this relate to computers in any special way?

Depends, how strong is you program? ;-) (Anyway, I would be interested
to read somes more about it.)

For computers that solve the game w.r.t. getting the maximum nuber of
points it does not really matter. However, If you're optimizing some
kind of probability of winning then the komi is important.


>    6. Does komi vary significantly with board size?

It is supposed to be 9 on 7x7, 4 on 6x6, and one could argue that it's
25 on 5x5 (although that's rather silly). This seems significant. Maybe
above 7x7 it stabilizes?

BTW under Chinese rules the 'perfect' komi may (at least in principle)
even be a range of values due to draw by repetition. (Under Japanese
rules 'no result' may screw up everything.)

Erik