PGB Scoring

  Difficulty: Beginner   Keywords: Rules

This is the final step of Playing a game backwards.

After determining which stones on the board are dead, the next step is to fill the neutral points. With Japanese scoring it does not matter if you fill them with white or black stones. With Chinese scoring this may change the result, so filling neutral points is a part of the game and is done alternately with white and black stones.

[Diagram]
Filling neutral points  

In this position White (it's her turn now) fills the only neutral point.


So, the next step is to remove the dead stones, which produces the following:

[Diagram]
Dead stones are removed  

Komi 5.5

White has 10+19=29 prisoners

Black has 8+ 24=32 prisoners


Next step during counting is to put the prisoners on the board filling the territory of your opponent.

At this moment White has 34 stones in the lid of her bowl (this includes 5 komi stones given to her by Black before the game). Black's lid contains 32 stones.

Let's see what is the result of the operation.

[Diagram]
Dead stones are returned to the board  

The next operation is to move the stones in the territories to form nice rectangles. On a real board it is easy.

It does not matter if the boundary is not of the proper color as long as you remember whose territory this is.

[Diagram]
Arranging the stones  

White has 2x4+2x3+3x6+1 = 6+8+18+1 = 33 moku

Black has 4x8+1 = 33 moku

Since komi is 5.5 points and not 5 points this means that White won by half a point.


This method to count the score is used in Ukraine.

In Singapore it is done differently. The procedure is the following.

  • Neutral points are filled.
  • Black fills his territory with black stones taking them from the bowl.
  • All black stones are returned into the empty bowl.
  • If they don't fill the bowl then White won.
  • If they fill the bowl and there are some left then Black won.

They say the result is almost always the same. Sometimes it differs by a point. This issue is discussed hotly. Refer to the counting pages if you want to know why. The rules in different countries vary a little and all you want to know is what rule set is applied. Most of us don't care too much.

The next page, PGB Why There Is No Useful Move Left, takes you one step backward to the point when both opponents passed. This is very important moment of the game. The game should be finished before scoring.


PGB Scoring last edited by Unkx80 on October 11, 2003 - 18:37
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