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ThreeByFourSolution

 

Stone Counting
    Keywords: Opening

There are two concepts that may both be called "Stone Counting". The original meaning referred to a form of scoring.

Traditional Chinese Scoring

Traditional Chinese scoring[1] was based on filling in, except for any eyes needed for life. Each player's score was the number of their stones left on the board at the finish. (The score by this style is equivalent to the modern Chinese style with a two point 'tax' on each independently living group.) This definition of scoring, while different from modern rules, is interesting from both historical and theoretical persepectives.

More information and discussion can be found at Stone Counting Scoring.

Simple Counting Method

Games played under rules with Area Scoring can be counted using an easy method based on filling in. The method is well suited for beginners and children when playing on smaller boards. This method results in the modern Area score, which doesn't include the 'tax'.

The library has complete instructions on the Stone Counting Method and there is an example.


[1] Bill Spight: It's traditional only in the sense of being older than modern Chinese scoring. Stone counting arose in the Ming Dynasty and persisted in some areas into the 20th century.

John Fairbairn Bill, where are the citations that prove it persisted? And I don't think we know enough to say it arose in the Ming. Surely we only know that our earliest records of it date from then. Rather than developing from known Song rules, maybe it was a separate parallel tradition that took over in the wake of the conquest.

Bill: John, my source for both claims is Ing: [ext] http://www.usgo.org/resources/SST.asp

JF Thanks, Bill. I think I started off with a misunderstanding. If the claim is essentially that games were still played in 20th c. China with starting stones (and group tax being implied) then of course that is known - the first game in Go Seigen's collected games is an example. I got it into my head something different was being discussed - maybe it was :)

On a general note, without in the slightest being dismissive of Ing's paper, there are some things in there that make you wonder about the rigour of his research. Anachronistic mention of tianyuan, not appearing to know old Japanese also used ro (i.e. Chinese lu) instead of me, and no mention of the Wei period. But it's a tricky area and as far as I know there has been nothing new discovered recently - hence my original query.

Bill: Ing remarks that the old-timers used stone counting when he was a boy.




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