Paper and Pencil Go
In terms of gameplay richness and scope for creativity, Go is probably the best game in the world. Also, if we made a list of games with most simple rules, Go would also be placed very high, but certainly not at the top. In my opinion, the main reason for this is that Go rules are forced to define an adequate way of handling repetitions of positions, which is a complicated task as shown by the very different ways it is treated by different rulesets. Another problem, closely related to this one, is that Go games, unlike Hex, Havannah, Amazons and others, are not theoretically assured to end in a reasonable number of moves, whether superko is enforced or not.
I have come up with an extremely simple Go variant which solves this difficulties and can be played just with paper and pencil, while at the same time keeping the essence of Go gameplay mostly unaltered. My first impression is that this variant feels even slightly more intuitive than regular Go, but I am far from an expert.
The rules are exactly those of Go, with the following exceptions:
- Surrounded stones are not captured, but just marked. Points occupied by marked stones count as territory for the surrounding player, but neither player can play on them for the remainder of the game. This implies that any group which touches a marked stone is unconditionally alive.
- Suicide is allowed, i.e., you can make a play such that one or more of your own stones, including the one you just played, become marked. I just establish this because the complete description of the rules is simpler (which is the very purpose of this variant) if no moves are illegal due to self-capture, in the spirit of the succint Tromp-Taylor rules of Go.
- For the same reason, area scoring is used.
Just for the sake of clarity:
In Paper and Pencil Go, White is alive in the corner, because after , Black's stone at
becomes marked, and Black cannot play on that point anymore (neither White can).
That's all. Have fun!
--Luis Bolaņos Mures
Reply
noobish: I think the part about "the essence of Go gameplay mostly unaltered" is pretty dubious. Much like first capture Go, groups are now alive with singe eyes that are at least two spaces large. Strategy would have to change in a fundamental way when you can live so much more easily. Also, nullifying the ko rule imposes some radical changes of it's own. This may well be an interesting variant, but I predict that it will necessarily lack much of the complexity and nuance of actual Go.
luigi87: To make it harder to live (and to simplify things even further), I have been thinking of adding a simultaneous capture rule: after a play, ALL the stones which haven't got any liberties at that moment are marked. If these marked stones are touched by just one player's unmarked stones, they count as territory for him; otherwise, they are neutral points. Thus, in the example above, White would be dead, since would kill both Black's
and the White group. I would like to read your opinions on this rule change before posting it above.
noobish: I suggest you play a few rounds of the variant to see for yourself, but my prediction is still that you'll have a game that is fundamentally different. With your adaptation, groups with any sort of eye are guaranteed at least life in seki. I believe this also implies that two groups involved in a ko immediately settle with both unconditionally alive (in seki) after the first capture.
I know that having to erase captured stones makes playing on paper rather difficult, but two very important principles in Go (ko and killing shapes) depend on the ability to replay on these intersections.