Computer Olympiad Rules

The computer Computer Olympiad Rules are used in the ICGA Computer Olympiads.

These rules are based on the Chinese rules (Area Counting) but are reformulated to be used for computer programs.

From the introduction:

In principle the Computer Olympiad Go rules attempt to conform to the Chinese rules described in [1], which are based on the 1988 version of the official rules of the Chinese Weiqi Association. Unfortunately, these rules are slightly ambiguous and rely on some rather imprecise rules for the referee. Especially the rules for dealing with reappearance of the same board position (long cycles) are imprecise and defined in a rather ad-hoc fashion (in rare cases they give the referee the option to declare a draw or a replay). As a consequence there has been some uncertainty among the participants on how the Chinese rules will be interpreted at the Computer Olympiad.

This document provides an alternative rules text which has generalised rules for dealing with long cycle repetition, matching all the (ad hoc) examples of the Chinese rules presented in [1]. Because the tournament will be played under time constraints, and because two deterministic programs may play the exact same game over and over again, we will only describe the conditions for declaring a draw, ignoring the option to declare a replay.

To accommodate for the fact that our rules are targeted at computer programs, unlike the normal Chinese rules that are targeted at human players, we use a somewhat different and more mathematical wording. We have added some additional procedures that do not change the nature of the rules, but should make life easier for the operators and the tournament director. Further, the text is condensed by omitting irrelevant topics corresponding to sections of the Chinese rules that are covered by the general Olympiad rules, common sense, or simply have no use in computer-computer play.

A main difference between these rules and other rule sets is the long cycle rule. It is a kind of positional superko rule. but the result is decided on the ratio of capturing between the two equal positions. (see further under long cycle rule

Notice that it doesn't matter if a different player who is on the move in both positions.

3.6 Long cycle rule

A board position is defined by the colouring of the grid’s intersections directly after play and any consequent removals. If a play recreates a previous board position then exceptionally and immediately the game ends and is scored, based on an analysis of all moves played since the moment just after the first occurrence until the moment just after the last occurrence, as follows:

1. If between the two occurrences the difference in number of captured black and white stones is not zero, then the program that captured the most stones of the opposing colour wins the game.

2. If between the two occurrences the difference in number of captured black and white stones is zero, then the game ends as a draw.

[1] J. Davies. The rules of Go. In R. Bozulich, editor, [The Go Player’s Almanac] 2001, pages 191-194. Kiseido Publishing Company, 2001.

These rules can be found at http://www.icga.org/tournaments/olympiadgo.pdf