Questionable strategy and tactics?

[AlanG2013]

Thank all of you for the assistance and as to my knowledge of the rules, I'd like to think I have a fair understanding of the game.

[AlanG2013]

My opponent waited until I was inable to move then surgically tore my territory appart from deep inside my lines. I was physically incapable of defending my territory. My answer to this was to go find more stones because I felt it seemed unfair that I should lose because I have no pieces left to play.

You seem to think there's a rule that says if you have no more stones, you have to pass. This is wrong. There's no such rule. You made it up. Without checking what the real rule says.

This makes me suspect that there might be other rules you made up, too. I think you should carefully check if your understanding of the entire rules of go is correct.

The only reason I felt I had to pass is because I had no stones to place and was unclear if I was able to get more to defend myself.

[emeraldemon]

Play 9x9! Don't assume it's not go: it is go, and it's a lot of fun and best for learning (as a beginner). You can print out a board to play on:

http://files.boardgamegeek.com/file/download/1puh8x4tc0/goban-bw9x9.pdf

If you and your friend play 10 9x9 games I think all your problems will resolve themselves naturally.

[willemien]

theoreticly all the answers are correct (off course)

but if you just keep passing you also win (all your stones are safe so what is the problem )

if there were 181 black and 180 white stones you should both run out of stones more or less at the same moment.
Did you count them. (and made sure black has less stones than white)

I think you gave the stones you captured back to your opponent, don't do that anymore , it is YOU who supplied him with an infinite amout of stones.




More creative solutions.

- Buy an extra set of stones , that should sove all lack of stiones problemms (if you have 359 stones you cannot run out of stones)

- Make a new rule: if you run out of stones you may take one of your own stones of the board and play it elsewhere. (you could remove a lot of stones that were not necesary for your groups), I think i like this variation

Unrelated
What a dark board. It is nice playing on such a dark surface?

[shapenaji]

This is one of the reasons I strongly recommend area scoring, he's welcome to go through and capture everything on the board, but it won't change the value of those regions...

So here's how area scoring works (basically), instead of getting a point for each spot of territory and a point for each enemy prisoner, You get a point for each spot of territory and each stone that you have on the board. (The score difference will be approximately the same (within 1 point)

When you capture stones, just throw them directly back into your opponent's bowl, (Remember, only stones on the board matter). Feel free to capture any stones that your opponent contends aren't dead at the end of the game (since under these rules proving that they're dead costs you nothing).

Then at the end of the game, (you only need to count either white or black, not both), remove all dead stones, count the territory for that color, and then count the number of those stones on the board (by moving them into groups of 10).

Since there are 361 points to divvy up, if you have 181 or more points, then your opponent must have 180, so a 1 point victory, if you have 191, then they must have 170, so it would be a 21 point victory.

[Dusk Eagle]

I can't help but feel the game should end when the lines are drawn and not require that I turn my entire territory into a twisted network of eyes.

This is where you're going wrong. You aren't required to turn your entire territory into a twisted network of eyes. If your opponent plays inside your territory, consider: is he threatening to capture any of my stones or make two eyes? If he isn't, then don't respond.

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Do you have to answer ? Can black actually do anything (i.e. make two eyes, capture your group) if you just pass?

[palapiku]

Do you have to answer ? Can black actually do anything (i.e. make two eyes, capture your group) if you just pass?

Well yes... if you intend to keep passing forever because you have ran out of stones, then black can live inside.

[daniel_the_smith]

I can't help but feel the game should end when the lines are drawn and not require that I turn my entire territory into a twisted network of eyes.

I would have to see the game to be sure but it really sounds like you're missing something, like the fact that you don't have to capture things immediately. As others have said, prisoner exchange FTW.

+1 to learning area rules (then prisoners don't matter and he just gives back to you any stones he captures).

To everyone: what the OP is saying is possible, I think-- if you have large masses of useless blobs of stones and significantly more than half of the board, you could indeed run out of stones. The problem I have is in this condition I don't see how the opponent could do anything useful inside your territory, so it still shouldn't be a problem.

[RobertJasiek]

Basically the answer is: If you run out of stones, take extra bowls with further stones. (Informally, prisoner exchanges are possible, too, provided both have left some.)

There is an exception, of course: Ing Rules let it be ambiguous what happens if one runs out of stones because all of one's exactly 180 stones (19x19 board) are on the board. Therefore, under Ing Rules, it is good to agree (or let the tournament rules declare) before the game how to treat the supposedly constant number of stones and how to count in case more stones become necessary.

[daniel_the_smith]

Haha, I guess under Ing rules, if you run out of stones, your opponent must resign...

[RobertJasiek]

When I tried it on a 3x3 against a small boy, who did not know the value of tengen yet, the player without stones had to pass. It was quite some fun related to whole board repetition.

[usagi]

I have a freind who I recently introduced to go however I don't think his strategy is allowed or at least socially acceptable. I started the game normally by spreading out across the board and his entire strategy was to surrender control of the board to me and wait until I ran out of pieces and inable to play. After I ran out of pieces, he proceded to attack every piece that was relatively remote on board with me having no means to defend them. Is this allowed and if it is, is it wrong if I need to grab extra to keep playing?

As you improve you will realize that there comes a point where it is not truly necessary to make a play. At that point, you may decline to play (pass). If your opponent wants to play, let him -- re-evaluate the situation, move if you need to, or don't make a play if you don't need to -- just pass.

His strategy doesn't really work.

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