2009/4/14 Brian Sheppard <[email protected]>:
> But in game 739216 the stones are the same, but the other color is moving.
> That can't be a repetition...

Well, that's what distinguishes _positional_ superko from _situational_
superko.  See  <http://senseis.xmp.net/?Superko> .

As Jason House wrote,
> That sounds like a classic _positional_ super ko violation. Any board
> repetition is a ko violation, regardless of the player to play.

_Regardless_ of the player to play.  [Emphasis mine.]

Now, one might have _philosophical_ disagreement about whether
that's the way a server "should" implement a prohibition on cycles,
or about whether that's "what the framers intended".  And I might
even agree with you that _situational_ superko is "superior" in that
regard.  Under situational superko, your example, as you say,
_can't_ be a repitition.  [So, one might well ask, what is the reason
for prohibiting it?]

But whether we like it or not, that is how the server authors have
chosen to implement the prohibition (even though allowing the
_other_ player to play in the position would not really create a
_cycle_, in the sense of a "directed acyclic graph").

[See  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed_acyclic_graph>.]

Situational superko can be defined in terms of not permitting a
cycle in the game-tree, thus always preserving its acyclic nature.
[Positional superko, IMHO, has no such elegant rationale.]

But postional superko is what both KGS and CGOS implement,
and we have to live with that, at least until they see the light.

-- 
Rich
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