Kee Rules Of Go/v Feb 2006

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KEE RULES OF GO (February 2006 version)

(Dedicated to Wing Yu)

[ext] http://www.geocities.com/kee_rules/kee_rules_of_go.html


WHY KEE RULES?

Most rulesets, when generalized to number of players more than two, can cause anomalies.

[Diagram]

Figure 1

Figure 1 shows a board position of a 3-color go game. Both White and Red have two real eyes but Black has only one. As Black is completely surrounded by White, a reasonable ruleset should allow black stones to be captured by White and counted as White’s territory.


However, through a careful implementation of traditional rulesets (e.g. basic ko, positional superko and situational superko), it is found that Black can survive with the help of Red. The interference of Red provides variety to the ko which favors Black. In this case, Red has incentive to help because the successful capture of black stones can make a difference:

Successful Capture of Black Stones

White 50 points (Ranked #1)

Red 31 points (Ranked #2)

Black 0 points (Ranked #3)

Unsuccessful Capture of Black Stones

White 22-24 points (Ranked #3)

Red 31-32 points (Ranked #1)

Black 26-28 points (Ranked #2)

(Note: The ranges, rather than exact values, of scores in failure column are due to the uncertainty of winners of the one-point ko)

On the other hand, under rulesets which allow ban-lifting by a single pass (e.g. Spight Rules), a game would still be ended before the successful capture because of a repeated pass of a player on the same board position.

The crux of the problem is to strike a balance - to include ban lifting function of a pass initially but to deactivate it upon stability. In Spight Rules, a pass can always lift all previous ko ban. However, this function is actually only useful in the first pass. The passing cycle thereafter instead implies unwillingness of all players to push further from such position under post-pass superko. This is not considered as the end of a game in Kee Rules, but only a switch to traditional positional superko. As such, any passes thereafter can no longer be granted the ban-lifting function and another passing cycle ends a game.


RULE SUMMARY

A. Generalized Board Shapes

Any set of permanent intersections with permanent adjacency, regardless of size, shape and dimension, can be treated as a generalized board.

B. Unlimited Number of Players

Unlike traditional rulesets, Kee Rules can be applied to a game with more than two players.

C. Kee Superko

A player may not place a stone to produce a position which has ever appeared unless it lastly appeared before the last occurrence of a pass (if any) and the first occurrence of consecutive passes of all players which follows a pass (if any).

D. Limitation on Re-altering Passed Position

A player may not place a stone on a position on which she has ever placed a stone when it was passed.

E. Termination Rule

A game ends with consecutive passes of all players at any time after the first occurrence of consecutive passes of all players which follows a pass.

Ways of scoring follow Chinese rules.

Published by Wing Tao Wilton Kee on 5-Feb-2006.


OPTIMAL PLAYS AND SCORES ON SMALL BOARDS

1x1: Pass (draw)

1x2: 1-1 (draw)

1x3: 1-2 (+3)

1x4: 1-2 (+4)

1x5: 1-2 (draw)

1x6: 1-2 (+1)

1x7: 1-2 (+2)

1x8: 1-2 (+3)

1x9: 1-2 (draw)

1x10: 1-2 (+1)

1x11: 1-2 (+2)

1x12: 1-2 (+1)

1x13: 1-2 (+2)

2x2: 1-1 (draw)

2x3: 1-2 (draw)

2x4: 1-2 (+8)

2x5: 1-3 (+10)

2x6: 1-3 (+12)

2x7: 1-4 (+14)

2x8: 1-4 (+16)

2x9: 1-5 (+18)

2x10: 1-5 (+4)

2x11: 1-6 (+4)

3x3: 2-2 (+9)

3x4: 2-2 (+4)

3x5: 2-3 (+15)

3x6: 2-3 (+18)

3x7: 2-4 (+5)

4x4: 2-2 (+2)

4x5: 2-3 (+20)

4x6: 2-3 (+1)

4x7: 2-4 (+4)

5x5: 3-3 (+25)

5x6: 3-3 (+2)

5x7: 3-4 (+9)

6x6: 3-3 (+4)

6x7: 3-4 (+6)


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