I am still kind of new to the game and all so I was wondering after you put the handicap stones on the board does black play his first move or does white go immediately after they handicap stones are placed?

White plays after handicap stones are placed. There's usually 0,5 point komi for white when playing against handicap.

Thanks

Note that I have only ever seen this in online play. I have never seen it when giving or taking handicaps in over-the-board play.

Best wishes.

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There are exceptions of course, but as a beginner you do not want to know them.

Whether White gets 0.5 komi or 0 komi and White wins ties (only in handicap games) or there is some recompensation komi depends on the used rules and tournament rules. TM, you have certainly also played in tournaments with such rules but if you don't bother to care for what the tournament rules are, then you have overlooked their application, of course. Your fault - not one of the rules.

What have you seen instead? Full komi?

And is it common to give 1 additional komi per handicap stone when using area-scoring, or is the effective handicap just a bit larger?

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Sanity is for the weak.

Normally, when playing handicaps in a club or teaching at a Congress, there is no komi and you accept that a tied score (jigo) will happen.

Best wishes.

_________________
No aji, keshi, kifu or kikashi has been harmed in the compiling of this post.
http://www.gogod.co.uk

This is consisent with my experience, although it is limited. In non-rated, non-tournament games, usually the players just accept a tie (usually with a joke or two about komi or whether it merits decreasing the handicap for the next game). In tournament games, I have seen a 0.5/white wins ties rule.

But you can do whatever you want.

I think I've always assumed .5 komi, which is probably a result of starting to play in 2005. Since I was playing on KGS and in person, I imported that rule.

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Occupy Babel!