Here's an intuitive argument for why I believe 7.5 komi is too high on any of the larger boards.
On very small (square odd-surface) boards there is no room for White to live (Black takes all points). Past a certain point (5x5), Black can no longer control the full board, so White also starts to take some points. Initially there is not much room left for White, so the perfect komi remains a bit high (e.g., 9 for 7x7), but as the size increases the White move values start to approach those of Black and I expect the advantage of the initiative to decrease to a constant (probably 7 or 5 points). Since we have reasonable indications that the first player score on 9x9 is no higher than 7, and because it is unlikely to increase with size, the main question is if it remains at 7, or if it drops down further (e.g., to 5). (even values such as 6 are much less likely on odd-surface boards with area scoring). Of course one could still argue that 7 is correct, and we just add 0.5 to prevent ties, but then I'd rather subtract 0.5 and go for a komi of 6.5 because I prefer the small advantage to go to the first player. Best, Erik BTW Nick, is there any chance that you will at some point run a kgs tournament with territory scoring? I'm still hoping that one day we will play Japanese rules with 6.5 komi. (Regardless of the komi, I think the more fine-grained territory scores would make the games more interesting, especially on 9x9.) On Tue, Aug 5, 2014 at 11:10 AM, Nick Wedd <n...@maproom.co.uk> wrote: > In January 2011, I took a poll on what komi to use for 9x9 bot > tournaments on KGS. There was a majority in favour of changing from > 7.5 to 7. > > During Sunday's 13x13 KGS bot tour, someone suggested also changing > the 13x13 komi from 7.5 to 7. The main argument for changing must > be that 7.5 favours White. So here are the statistics from recent > KGS 13x13 bot tournaments: > > White Black > wins wins > 2014 August 13 9 > April 36 27 > 2103 December 12 18 > April 28 20 > > TOTALS 89 74 > > I am inclined to think there is not a convincing reason to change. > But I will welcome persuasion; or better, more statistics. > > Nick > -- > Nick Wedd > n...@maproom.co.uk > _______________________________________________ > Computer-go mailing list > Computer-go@dvandva.org > http://dvandva.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/computer-go _______________________________________________ Computer-go mailing list Computer-go@dvandva.org http://dvandva.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/computer-go
