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Large Handicap Games Discussion
Path: HandicapGoPath   · Prev: HandicapForSmallerBoardSizes   · Next: HandicapsBeyondNineStones
    Keywords: Strategy

Some thoughts on large handicap games

Merits

Between players of large difference in playing skill, large handicap is offered to make the game as close (and therefore interesting) as possible. By no means is it a won game for White: nine stones are a lot, always. And you can never say whether the opponent will not exceed herself. You must take care and remain concentrated, even when having captured a large group, or when having secured a thick, winning position. [concentrated meaning focused? or should it be "remain connected"?]

Drawbacks

That's the beneficial side of handicap Go. Too often however it happens that the weaker player loses all confidence by being crushed even with nine stones. It can also become quite frustrating for White. Games are long lost, but resignation doesn't come. Or sometimes Black is unable to appreciate White's efforts.

After a few years of playing such games, I think they simply should not take place.

Alternatives

What are the alternatives ?

1. Start a game with nine stones. At various occasions, when you feel the player is uninspired, guide him or her towards positive play asking questions like "If I say you have to cut my groups, where would you play?" or "Do you think it is necessary to answer my move, or can you play elsewhere?". In brief, make it a teaching game, but be inspired in your teaching. When the endgame has started rather early (no whole-board fighting has occurred), ask "Do you think the endgame has started?", and say some words about the endgame.

2. Start a game for real (nine stones), and as soon as you have reached an irrevertible winning position, resume [resign?] the game, or say: "You should resign, for this or that reason". Forget about Oriental politeness, forbidding you to resign in someone else's place. Rather think of yourself as the karate teacher, who won't fight his pupil until the bitter end.

3. Play 13x13 or 9x9

This avoids whole-board fighting or whole-board decision making, in which White is obviously much stronger. It also avoids hours wasted on long decided games. It enables you to play several games in a row, which increases the probability that your opponent wins by their own good play.

4. Make the handicap placement vary (free handicap). That way, you'll encounter many more variations than with the hoshi stones.

5. Play the shape game, with Black stones on every second edge point and White having to try and make a live group.

6. Play fast games. It is my experience that people who dislike fast games, tend to remain weak.

-- Dieter Verhofstadt (1k)

7. Use more than nine handicap stones, according to the placements on the Handicap page. -- Hu


lavalyn: When even nine handicap stones are insufficient to cover the difference in skill (think 2d versus 15k), White will be giving Black a teaching game (or just dominate and force the resignation early). Should White play to keep the game close, or just punish every mistake Black makes? We assume that White will review the game afterward.

Confused: Speaking from the perspective of the victim, I prefer it if White keeps the game at a level that I can understand.

I prefer having those mistakes punished in the most graphic way, that I can fix in the short term. And for that, a solid demonstration why a move or an idea was bad is usually very instructive.

I think this would mean for White to select those mistakes that are most instructive to punish while going light on more advanced problems. No need to worry about aji and light play, when auto-atari roam the board.

Browncow: I have found that allowing free placement of handicap stones is a very good way to play large handicap games. This allows for handicaps larger than 9 stones. Also it forces the weaker player to think about opening strategy when placing there stones and also during a game. Since the traditional 9 stone placement is so artifical it has always given me difficulty playing both against and with. Although this type of placement is less formal I think that it may be better in a teaching game.


ChessWhiz: Actually, I suggest a reverse komi, with maybe 10 points for each additional rank difference. It worked well in my game against Dnerra, although we didn't get far enough for it to make a difference. :-)

Jan: I agree with ChessWhiz, reverse komi is a nice system. We use it at the Go Club Utrecht for games which theoretically should have more than 9 handicap stones. (As we have a fairly small group of players of widely ranging strength, these tend to come up quite often). So sometimes the stronger players have to win by (say) 60 points on the board, starting from a 9 stone handicap. I've played a few of these reverse komi games, all except one as black, and winning most of them on the board left me happy (and wondering whether I was underrated :-)

Going beyond nine stones seems a bit pointless to me, although I can't argue why exactly. Maybe it's the idea that if Black can't win with nine, he probably won't win with eleven stones...


Alex Weldon: I like fuseki, so my objection to handicap games is just that handicap changes the nature of the game by eliminating the fuseki. The whole game is essentially just one of moyo invasion and reduction. Black will learn a bit about defense and fighting, but won't really learn much about attack, or building a moyo in the first place. Imagine a player who learned to play Go only by playing 9 stone handicap games. Imagine then that he tries to play against another player of supposedly even rank, who learned by playing even games. The player trained on handicap games would do quite well if he could build a large, loose moyo early on, but would have no idea how to go about building that moyo in the first place, most likely.


Bill: If Black doesn't learn about attack, it's his own fault. Handicap stones are well placed for attack.
And for learning, I advocate playing with inadequate handicaps. If you want to learn some fuseki, take a 4-stone handicap forming a ponnuki shape around tengen. :-)


Jesse: I actually find fuseki in handicap games quite interesting. For example, which corner play should white choose in a 2 or 3 stone handicap game, or how should black respond to a kakari in the beginning of a 6 stone game? (I do realize these questions may not have definitive answers, but I think the issues involved can also apply to even game fuseki.)



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This is a copy of the living page "Large Handicap Games Discussion" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2003 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.