Even game

An even game of go is a game played without handicaps.

In contemporary professional tournaments all games are played even, with komi. The last traces of handicap games between pros was presumably the recently abolished Oteai ranking tournament.

These days 'even game' is nearly the same as 'game played on an empty board'. One wouldn't call a game with a large value of komi even - but this isn't a system used in serious events. The old starting positions used in China and Korea for hundreds of years up to the period 1930-1940 were with the board set up to a standard pattern. In China, anyway, this was varied to give handicaps, and an even game was one using the Chinese classical opening.

Charles Matthews