2007/4/12, Don Dailey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
9x9 is a good board size for computers. I'm not really sure if there is anything special about 19x19 (why not 17x17 or 21x21?) perhaps they thought 17x17 was too hard (if it's true that smaller boards are harder for humans.)
To the question "why not 17x17 or 21x21", there is a standard answer. I'm surprised if you have never heard of it? (I don't claim it is a correct answer, but it is a standard one.) In Go, the third line and the fourth line is significant, irrespective of board sizes. If you calculate the ratio of the number of points below the third line and the rest, you get: Size 9, 72/9 = 8.00 Size 11, 96/25 = 3.84 Size 13, 120/49 = 2.45 Size 15, 144/81 = 1.78 Size 17, 168/121 = 1.39 Size 19, 192/169 = 1.14 Size 21, 216/225 = 0.96 Size 23, 240/289 = 0.83 Size 25, 264/361 = 0.73 Changing the board size will alter the balance of center vs. corner/side. Actually, given the above numbers, 21x21 may be playable without altering the balance too much, I'm not sure. But 9x9, 13x13 and 19x19 is a quite different game in terms of center/corner balance. -- Seo Sanghyeon _______________________________________________ computer-go mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go/
