Prisoner scoring

Prisoner Scoring is a scoring method where the score is defined as the difference between the counts of captives.

Even though prisoner scoring is hardly applied to practical play, it is of some interest for the theory of scoring methods.

See also Zaru Go. See also Ancient Chinese Rules and Philosophy

RobertJasiek: How is it a scoring method? Isn't it the counting method PrisonerCountingForStoneScoring?

Dieter: I don't know but I guess you're right. Feel free to do whatever you want with this page. I just cleaned up some noise.

RobertJasiek: My question is somewhat rhetorical. In principle it is possible define a scoring based only on prisoners. The question is: Which purpose does it serve? We also do not list move parity as a scoring system because we do not have a purpose associated with it. As a counting procedure, we do have a purpose.

Bill: It is the scoring method for Zaru Go.

RobertJasiek: What about redefining stone scoring as prisoner scoring? I.e., it is also the scoring method for Go with stone scoring and the stone count determines the prisoner score;)

Bill: They are not interchangeable. See Zaru Go Problem 1.

RobertJasiek: So Zaru Go Scoring fails to require an equal number of moves and either player can make the last move? Pass fights can occur then and therefore it is a Go variant rather than Go.

Sandra: This is incorrect. In Zaru Go, white must past last.