KGS and Proper Handicap

First off:

• There is no significant reason to insist on using of proper Handicap on KGS. It is assumed that the KGS ratingsystem is aware of the situation and does not expect equal chances to win in handicapped games. Thus your rank will not suffer if you use traditional handicap.

Yet, if you want your games to be 'as fair as possible' or you desire to uphold the spirit of handicapping (which is after all to offer equal chances at winning) then you may be interested in reading on and learning how to apply proper handicap regarding KGS rulesets.

• KGS Japanese Rules:
  • Handicap = Rankdifference + 1
  • Komi = 6.5
    • This case is identical to the one referenced in 'Proper Handicap' with the difference that the tiebreaker has been reintroduced here.

• KGS Chinese Rules:
  • Handicap = Rankdifference + 1
  • Komi for even games = 7.5
  • Komi for handicap games = 6.5
    • For handicapped games KGS Chinese rules will award points equal to the handicap to white at the time of scoring in order compensate for the area scoring. Additionally this upholds equal rankspacing between chinese and japanese systems.
    • In even games (which could be considered Handicap=1 games) no additional compensation is needed as the regular Komi already includes one additional point for the added value of the first stone under area scoring.

• KGS AGA Rules:
  • Handicap = Rankdifference + 1
  • Komi = 7.5
    • KGS AGA Rules will compensate white with one point less than the current handicap at scoring. Thus is it not necessary to have two different values of Komi for handicapped and non-handicapped games.

• KGS New Zealand Rules:
  • Handicap = Rankdifference + 1
  • Komi = Rankdifference + 7
    • KGS NZ Rules do not compensate white for the additional value of the handicap stones at scoring. This poses no problem if the players have ranks derived from playing purely NZ rules. Yet in KGS most ranks will have been derived from a Japanese system or one that compensates for the additional worth of handicap in area scoring. Thus in order to arrive at a fair game it becomes necessary to manually compensate for the worth of the handicap as this is not done automatically at scoring.