Zen Go
Jenny Radcliffe: My understanding of this exercise - which we are due to try in Monday, so I'll have more information on Tuesday - is that three players take it in turns to play. Black and white also alternate as usual. Thus supposing hypothetically that you have three players, Edwin, Jenny and Chris.
- Jenny plays black's first move;
- Edwin plays white's first move;
- Chris plays black;
- Jenny plays white;
- Edwin plays black;
- Chris plays white;
- Back to the beginning.
Naturally the purpose is not win or loss, so in a way it is more of an exercise than an actual game. Hopefully it gives a new perspective and feel for the game - but I'll let you know what happens when we've tried it!
I'd be interested to hear from anyone else who's played this - I know I've read about it, but I can't find any references to it online.
Charles Matthews Sounds like a game of go designed by a committee - maybe in more than one sense. Next, rules for Koango, Quango, NGO ... where will it all end?
Jan: I once played this variant. It was fun for a while, but as the players participating weren't very strong we couldn't build nice shapes - so it became fairly pointless after a while. To counter that, we started keeping track of who had captured the most stones on his (or her) turn. But that had the side-effect of losing the idea of selfless play :-)
So I think maybe you'd better set yourselves some goals (such as always tenuki or something) before embarking on this venture.
Jenny Radcliffe: Well, we've had a chance to try it now, and it was extremely interesting. Very weird, but extremely interesting. Definitely an exercise we'll be repeating, I think - it seriously changes your perspective on the game.
Jenny Radcliffe: Obviously technically you can't get a more even game than this - and yet white lost by resignation. Which says something significant about how inconsistently we were all playing; not just each of us playing our own strategy, but each of us being inconsistent as well.
Jenny Radcliffe: As Jan says, it's difficult to remember which colour you're meant to be playing - I recommend breaking with my usual playing rules and picking up the next stone as soon as you play. It helps you remember what you're doing.
Tas I´ve tried this as well. It was very interesting, and a good excercise. Very wierd first to make plans, and then spoil them yourself.
For an example of a different type of three player Go, see: Three Colour Ongoing Game