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Sunjang Baduk
   

Sunjang Baduk is a variant of Go, which was common in Korea through the 16th century.

The first 16 moves are prescribed and Black makes the first free play, leading straight into a fierce middlegame. Perhaps this is why the character of Korean players is the way it is. The other main difference lies in the way of scoring. After all plays have been made, as many internal stones as possible are removed, leaving continuous boundaries. Then the totals of territory controlled are counted, with prisoners ignored. (source: the Hangkuk Kiwon Guidebook)


[Diagram]
Diag.: 16 stones to start with


BillSpight: Black's first "free" play is prescribed. He plays at the center of the board.

About scoring: The final borders cannot contain any stone in atari, but may contain cutting points. They need not be continuous. Points are not counted in seki.

People have long debated the merits of area scoring (ChineseScoring) vs. territory scoring (JapaneseScoring). (See TerritoryAndAreaScoring.) IMHO, Korean scoring combines the advantages of both. Its only drawback is unfamiliarity.

John Fairbairn discusses Sunjang Baduk on [ext] MSO. Yours truly has analyzed a ko fight in a [ext] PDF file there.




This is a copy of the living page "Sunjang Baduk" at Sensei's Library.
(C) the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.