[computer-go] can superko lead to zugzwang?

[Arthur Cater <arthur.cater@xxxxxx>]

Title: can superko lead to zugzwang?

Hi folks,

As I understand it, superko means that it is not permitted for

the same situation to be repeated: stones on the board, player to

move, and (I presume) balance of prisoners.

I wonder if it can happen therefore that a player can find himself

forced to make a non-pass move. The opponent might have made moves,

including a pass, and both sides made captures, such that the player

is left in a situation where the balance of prisoners is the same as,

and the stones on the board are the same as, some earlier point in

the game. Only the player on the move is different. That player then

cannot pass because this would reinstate perfectly the earlier point.

This would look like zugzwang.

Does any ruleset prohibiting superko address this issue? Have I

misunderstood something? Is it ever a real concern or is it the most

idle of idle academic speculations?

Arthur

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