Dots Go

   

Table of contents Table of diagrams
Dots Go
Only odd points can be played.
A single play in the middle gets 6 liberties.
White attacking in response
Liberties at the center, sides and corners.

Introduction

DotsGo is the game that evolves from the special setup shown below, which resembles Dots and Boxes. Even though common Go rules apply, the game is a little strange. It makes heavy use of miais and hence is interesting for practicing the concept of miai.


[Diagram]

Dots Go


Some Very Basic Analysis

Something might be interesting to note:

[Diagram]

Only odd points can be played.

Even points are already played, so, until a capture is made, only odd points can be played.

[Diagram]

A single play in the middle gets 6 liberties.

Note that B1 creates a group with 6 liberties.

[Diagram]

White attacking in response

White's attack there has reduced the liberties for both stones (B1 and W2) to 3+2.

[Diagram]

Liberties at the center, sides and corners.

Play on an a would result in 2 liberties for both Black and White.

A black play on a b would result in 3 liberties, whereas a white one would result in 4. On c correspondingly, a white play would result in 3 liberties, whereas a black one would result in 4.

Either player can create a string with 5 liberties at d.

A black stone played on e would have the full 6 liberties, whereas a white one would only have 5 there. At f points it's vice versa.

I don't know... how would you analyze such a game? (extracted from a comment by aib)


Handicap

To ensure that games between players of different DotsGo strength are exciting to both, White can give handicap to Black by passing for the first few moves (after the setup). However be aware, DotsGo ranks don't necessarily correspond with usual ones.


Comments & Discussion

Dots Go is the balanced version of a position initially suggested at Global Seki.

blubb: I've played some dozens games of Dots Go at kgs. A 13x13 setup grid can be mutually created by the players within a minute. The actual game turnes out to be quite challenging, since hardly any of the Go knowledge I have gained so far is really useful here, regardless of the rules being exactly the same.

Anyway, I couldn't find a clear evidence yet if the first player tends to win or to lose, nor which komi may be appropriate.

Bill: blubb, I am curious about your impressions about the game. It seems to me that there are no kos, and superkos would be rare, as would sekis. It also seems to me that the tactics are simpler than regular go. For instance, there are no snapbacks or eye-stealing tesuji, and it is practically impossible to form an empty triangle. So strategy and whole board thinking are even more important in dots go than in regular go. Comments?


See also DotsGoOngoingGame.


This is a copy of the living page "Dots Go" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2007 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
[Welcome to Sensei's Library!]
StartingPoints
ReferenceSection
About