Kee Rules Of Go/ VJuly 2005

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KEE RULES OF GO - JULY 2005 VERSION

[ext] http://www.geocities.com/kee_rules/kee_rules_of_go.html


INTRODUCTION

Under traditional basic ko or superko rule, a ko can remain unresolved on a fully occupied board if passing is not qualified as a ko threat. Spight Rules have overcome this anomaly by treating ban deletion as a feature of passes. Noticing that the ban deleting feature of passes should be initiated by the player who wants ban deletion, Kee Rules have further modified to treat such feature as an option of the passing player.

Furthermore, Spight Rules have introduced another anomaly that a player can end the game by just passing the same position twice even when stones are placed in between. Actually, stone placement in between implies that another position must have been passed between the two passes. Such position may also be passed twice if the game continues. While it is undeniable that the game should end when the opponent cannot avoid two identical passes, there is no ground to justify the first position passed twice to be the uniquely valid scoring position in a cyclic ending. With history superko, Kee Rules have ensured a unique scoring position by avoiding abuse of ban-deleting passes.


RULES

A. Definitions

1. Go is a game played on a board by certain number of players.

Conventionally, Go is played by two players.

2. A board consists of intersections each adjacent to certain others.

Conventionally, a board consists of 19 horizontal lines and 19 vertical lines intersecting with each other.

3. Every player has identical stones to represent herself.

Conventionally, stones are black and white.

4. Players move alternately.

5. A move can either be an occupying move, a ban-deleting pass, or a ban-keeping pass.

6. The status of an intersection is "unoccupied" if such intersection is not occupied by any stones.

7. The status of an intersection is "occupied by player A" if such intersection is occupied by player A.

8. An occupying move of a player is to put her stone on an intersection without any stones.

9. The neighbor of an intersection is the union of such intersection and all its adjacent intersections.

10. A set of intersections is a group of a player if it consists of intersections occupied by such player and none of them are adjacent to intersections occupied by such player but out of the set.

11. A group of a player is captive if it is not adjacent to any unoccupied intersections.

12. A game begins with the common phase. The confirmation phases of each player come after if the final position is produced in the common phase. Scoring is done upon the end of the game.

13. A ban is the following components recorded preceding a move:

(a) Position: The status set of all intersections on the board.

(b) Mover: The player of the next move.

(c) History: The set of all distinct situations recorded after the last ban-deleting pass, if a ban-deleting pass exists in the same phase; or

The set of all distinct situations recorded in the same phase, if otherwise.

Here situation refers to the combination of position and mover recorded preceding the same move.

B. Occupying Moves

1. (Applicable when suicide is not permitted)

A player may not occupy an intersection to produce a captive own group without captive opponent groups.

2. After occupying an intersection, if there are any captive opponent groups, all captive opponent groups are removed from the board.

3. After occupying an intersection, if there are any captive own groups but no captive opponent groups, all captive own groups are removed from the board.

C. Common Phase

1. Conventionally, in the common phase, the player with black stones moves first on an unoccupied board.

2. In the common phase, a player may not make an occupying move such that a ban previously recorded in the same phase which satisfies the following conditions exists:

(a) The situation of the newly recorded ban would be the same as the situation of such previously recorded ban.

(b) The history of the newly recorded ban would contain all situations in the history of such previously recorded ban.

3. In the common phase, the position becomes the common position when the ban recorded preceding N consecutive moves remains unchanged, where N is the number of players. The position is also the final position in Chinese scoring.

4. The common phase ends when the common position is produced.

D. Confirmation Phase

1. In the confirmation phase of a player, her successor moves first on the common position.

2. In a confirmation phase, a player may not make an occupying move such that a ban previously recorded in the same phase which satisfies the following conditions exists:

(a) The neighbor of the intersection just occupied would be the same as the neighbor of the same intersection in the situation of such previously recorded ban.

(b) The history of the newly recorded ban would contain all situations in the history of such previously recorded ban.

3. In a confirmation phase of a player, the position becomes her confirmed position when the ban recorded preceding N consecutive moves remains unchanged, where N is the number of players.

4. The confirmation phase of a player ends when her confirmed position is produced.

E. Proposed Position

1. Upon making a pass in the common phase, a player may propose a "final" position of her passed position.

2. A player may revise her proposed position of any of her passed positions at any time.

3. An opponent of a player may agree to her lastly proposed position of any of her passed positions at any time.

4. When all opponents agree to the same proposed position of the same passed position of a player:

(a) The passed position becomes the common position.

(b) The proposed position becomes the final position.

F. Scoring

1. The scoring position is formed by assigning status of each intersection as:

(a) The status of the final position, if the final position is produced; or

(b) The status of a confirmed position, if the final position is not produced but the status is the same in all confirmed positions; or

(c) Indeterminate, if otherwise.

2. A group of a player is irremovable if its adjacent unoccupied intersections cannot all be occupied by her opponent after a phase which starts with the scoring position and continues with only ban-deleting passes of all players except such opponent.

3. The gross area of a player is the union of all her groups and all unoccupied groups adjacent and only adjacent to her groups in the scoring position.

4. The permanent area of a player is the union of all her irremovable groups and all unoccupied groups adjacent and only adjacent to her irremovable groups in the scoring position.

5. (Chinese scoring) A player gets one point from each intersection which belongs to her gross area.

6. (Japanese scoring)

(a) A player gets one point from each intersection which is not occupied by her in the common position but belongs to her permanent area.

(b) A player loses one point from each intersection which is occupied by her in the common position but belongs to the permanent area of her opponent.

(c) A player loses one point from each of her removed stones in the common phase.

7. A player with more points wins.

Published by Wing Tao Wilton Kee on 30-Jul-2005.


BREAKTHROUGH

1. Any number of players (Rule A.1)

2. Generalized definition of board (Rule A.2)

3. Ban deletion as an option of passing player (Rule A.5)

4. Rule flexibility on permission of suicide (Rule B.1)

5. Situational superkos after ban-deleting passes in common phase (Rule C.2)

6. Neighbor superkos after ban-deleting passes in confirmation phase (Rule D.2)

7. History superko in both phases - avoids abuse of ban-deleting passes (Rule C.2 and D.2)

8. Flawless definition of ending - no progress in both situation and history (Rules C.3 and D.3)

9. Compatibility to both Chinese and Japanese scoring systems (Rules F.5 and F.6)

10. Shortcut to scoring using proposed position (Rule E)

11. Revision and confirmation of proposal at any time (Rules E.2 and E.3)

12. Concept of irremovable groups - to rationalize "zero points in seki" in Japanese scoring system (Rule F.2)

13. Common position for score and scoring position for fate in Japanese scoring - two different positions to serve different purposes (Rule F.6)


OPTIMAL SCORES ON SMALL BOARDS

1x1: Pass (C/J:draw)

1x2: Pass (C/J:draw)

1x3: 1-2 (C:+3/J:+2)

1x4: 1-2 (C:+4/J:+2)

1x5: Pass (C/J:draw)

1x6: 1-2 (C:+1/J:draw)

1x7: 1-2 (C:+2/J:+1)

1x8: 1-2 (C:+3/J:+2)

1x9: Pass (C/J:draw)

1x10: 1-2 (C:+1/J:+0)

1x11: 1-2 (C:+2/J:+1)

1x12: 1-2 (C:+1/J:+0)

1x13: 1-2 (C:+2/J:+1)

2x2: 1-1, Pass (C/J:draw)

2x3: 1-2, Pass (C/J:draw)

2x4: 1-2 (C:+8/J:+7)

2x5: 1-3 (C:+10/J:+9)

2x6: 1-3 (C:+12/J:+11)

2x7: 1-4 (C:+14/J:+13)

2x8: 1-4 (C:+16/J:+15)

2x9: 1-5 (C:+18/J:+17)

2x10: ? (C:+4/J:?)

2x11: ? (C:+4/J:?)

3x3: 2-2 (C:+9/J:+8)

3x4: 2-2 (C:+4/J:draw)

3x5: 2-3 (C:+15/J:+14)

3x6: 2-3 (C:+18/J:+17)

3x7: 2-4 (C:+5/J:?)

4x4: 2-2 (C:+2/J:draw)

4x5: 2-3 (C:+20/J:+19)

4x6: 2-3 (C:+1/J:?)

4x7: 2-4 (C:+4/J:?)

5x5: 3-3 (C:+25/J:+24)

5x6: 3-3 (C:+2/J:?)

5x7: 3-4 (C:+9/J:?)

6x6: 3-3 (C:+4/J:?)

6x7: 3-4 (C:+6/J:?)


This is a copy of the living page "Kee Rules Of Go/ VJuly 2005" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2012 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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