negative influence

From the point of view of positional judgement, one counts secure territory for both sides - and then there is further work to do. There is the effect of influence to assess; there is also the need to count somehow for the presence of weak groups for the two sides.

'Negative influence' is one way to explain the idea that weak groups are like balance sheet entries with an opposite sign to those attributed to influence. QARTS is one idea for doing this, a bit more refined than the idea I acquired long ago that a weak group is worth -10 to -20 points.

Charles Matthews