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StoneCountingMethod
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StoneCounting

 

Stone Counting Method Example
    Keywords: Rules

Here is an example, step by step, of the Stone Counting Method.

This Example Game has just ended with two passes.


[Diagram]
End of the Game

1: Note the territories

The players agree that:

  • White has two live groups, top left and bottom edge.
  • Black has two live groups, bottom left and right side.
  • White has two dead stones on the right
  • Black has three dead stones on the top left
  • There are no non-scoring points. (Dame, or Seki)

[Diagram]
Dead stones removed

2: Remove the dead stones.

In the diagram, the points where the dead stones were are marked with a circle.


[Diagram]
Territories Filled-In

3: Fill in the territories

Each territory is filled in with stones of the same color from the bowls.


[Diagram]
Rearranged

4a: Determine the winner by rearrangement

Now the stones are rearranged so that Black's stones are all on one side and White's are all on the other. It is important that at this point no more stones are added or removed from the board.

Now it is clear that Black has won. In addition, you can see that White and Black each have four full rows of stones. In the center, White has one stone and Black has eight. Therefore, Black has seven more stones than White. Black has won by seven points.


[Diagram]
First pair to remove

4b: Determine the winner by pair-wise removal

For younger children, instead of rearranging the stones, they stone can be removed in pairs. Remove a pair of stones, one white and one black, from the board. Then keep removing pairs until there is only one color on the board. For example, the circled stones are removed as a pair:


[Diagram]
Second pair to remove

Then the next pair can be removed:

Notice that it doesn't matter which two stones you remove, so long as one is white and one is black.


[Diagram]
No more pairs

At the end, the board will have only one color left:

Black has won. Black had seven more points than White.



4c: Determine the winner by counting

Instead of rearranging the stones they can be simply counted directly: Black has 44 stones, and White has 37. Black wins by seven points.


BillSpight: For real stone counting:

[Diagram]
Territories Filled-In with Living Stones


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