GoRoGo

[luigi]

GoRoGo is an interesting-looking Go variant played on a 5x5 board with black, white and neutral pieces. Alas, the rules in the official site aren't very well written, and the exact behaviour of neutral pieces isn't entirely clear to me. I'm assuming that, after a placement, only those groups adjacent to the placement can be removed.

[hyperpape]

I read rule 3 to say that on the next turn all groups lacking a liberty would be removed. How do you read it?

[Kirby]

The henge pieces are never removed, as it shows in the example. Kind of an interesting concept.

Seems basically like Go, except:
* Object is to capture the most pieces, while always having a legal play, and playing all your henge stones before the last turn. Oh, and you have a limited number of stones to play.

* henge stones can't be captured, so you can play them anywhere, even if the stone would normally have no liberties.

* on black's turn, henge stone acts as a black stone. On white's turn, it acts as a white stone.

L19 diagrams support half black half white stones, so maybe we should play a game.

[luigi]

I read rule 3 to say that on the next turn all groups lacking a liberty would be removed. How do you read it?

I was thinking that, in the third example, the single white stone in the center wouldn't be removed after any black placement, but that's not the case. It's clear from the rules that it will indeed be removed.

[FuriousGeorge]

Yeah, seems like in the #3 example that white stone is a goner, but I'm a little confused at the last part of that rule:

"If black player has no legal take, he loses the game immediately. He can avoid defeat of game. It is very effective when he obtains more pieces."

Is that referring to the situation in #3 with the henge stone suicide? Or just in general for the game?

Some interesting constraints. I would probably get really tripped up by those henge pieces.

[Kirby]

I'm a little confused at the last part of that rule:

"If black player has no legal take, he loses the game immediately. He can avoid defeat of game. It is very effective when he obtains more pieces."

Is that referring to the situation in #3 with the henge stone suicide? Or just in general for the game?

Here's an example I constructed, based on my interpretation of the rules:

$$B
$$ ------------
$$ | O O * X X |
$$ | O X X X * |
$$ | O X X X C |
$$ | O O X X * |
$$ | O O O * C |
$$ ------------

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ ------------
$$ | O O * X X |
$$ | O X X X * |
$$ | O X X X C |
$$ | O O X X * |
$$ | O O O * C |
$$ ------------[/go]

There are no captures, yet. Black has played all 10 of his pieces. White has played 9.

If the Henge stones were regular black stones, white wouldn't be able to play in either of the marked spots. White would lose since white has no legal move to play. But since they are considered as white stones for this turn, white can play:

$$B
$$ ------------
$$ | O O * X X |
$$ | O X X X * |
$$ | O X X X W |
$$ | O O X X * |
$$ | O O O * . |
$$ ------------

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ ------------
$$ | O O * X X |
$$ | O X X X * |
$$ | O X X X W |
$$ | O O X X * |
$$ | O O O * . |
$$ ------------[/go]

According to the rules, now that all of the stones have been played, the game is over. Since neither player has any captures, the score is tied, and white wins.

Note that, if players could keep playing, black would automatically capture the stone white just played on the next turn, since the Henge stones are considered black for that turn.

[Kirby]

Thinking about it, I guess my example doesn't work since white has no liberties on the left.

Perhaps if white had two eyes on the left, this kind of example would work.

$$B
$$ ------------
$$ | O O * X * |
$$ | . O X X * |
$$ | O O X X C |
$$ | . O X X * |
$$ | O O O X C |
$$ ------------

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ ------------
$$ | O O * X * |
$$ | . O X X * |
$$ | O O X X C |
$$ | . O X X * |
$$ | O O O X C |
$$ ------------[/go]

Ok, say White captured two of black's stones like this. Now, white can play the marked area as described above.