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Handicap for smaller board sizes
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Keywords: Equipment
Regarding handicap games, the following table gives one possible way of allocating handicap and komi on 13x13 boards. First column: Strength difference on 19x19 goban, second column, handicap on 13x13 goban, third column, komi to white. Difference 13x13 Komi Difference 13x13 Komi 0 0 5.5 10 4 5.5 1(*) 0 5.5 11 4 2.5 2 0 2.5 12 4 0.5 3 0 0.5 13 5 5.5 4 2 5.5 14 5 2.5 5 2 2.5 15 5 0.5 6 2 0.5 16 6 5.5 7 3 5.5 17 6 2.5 8 3 2.5 18 6 0.5 9 3 0.5 19 6 -3.5 (*) In the case of a one stone difference in strength, the weakest player takes black and plays first.
The Cambridge club ( 2.5 grades = 1 handicap stone
seems to be correct; details at On RGG, Tim Hunt posted his recommendations Grade 13x13 board 9x9 board Difference Handicap Komi Handicap Komi 0 1 6 1 6 1 1 2 1 4 2 1 -2 1 2 3 2 4 1 0 4 2 0 1 -2 5 2 -4 1 -4 6 3 2 2 4 7 3 -2 2 2 8 4 4 2 0 9 4 0 2 -2 10 4 -4 2 -4 Charles Tim was a Cambridge player for many years. This is a 'smoothed' version of the system, adopting a Japanese practice of reverse komi. Actually I think this makes it easier for White.
Vesa We had recently a round-robin 9x9 tournament with 14 players from 15 kyu to 5 dan. The results indicate that the handicap is not easy for White. The results are available in
The top right vs. bottom left is 36.5 - 54.5. This might not be statistically good enough sample but anyway some kind of response to the "easier for white" argument.
Charles The page The politics is usually that the stronger players argue about the system until White has an easier time. 'Correct' handicap systems will mean the events are won by undergraded players. After a while the stronger players normally have understood more about what you have to do, to win. Path: HandicapGoPath · Prev: Handicap · Next: LargeHandicapGamesDiscussion This is a copy of the living page "Handicap for smaller board sizes" at Sensei's Library. ![]() |