Jedo wrote:jts wrote:
I think we can see how unsatisfying the pie rule is by thinking about how its application would work in a game like tennis. Good tennis players spend years perfecting their serve: learning to place it precisely, getting power and spin, and thinking about how the game will develop from the initial serve. Likewise, they spend a lot of time practicing returning serves, and getting good at that. The game of tennis is built around the player with first-move advantage trying to use that advantage to the hilt, and the other player trying to resist it, and the kinetic ballet that develops from that interaction.
So then if someone comes to me and tells me that playing sets has disadvantages, and he has a way to stop time immediately after the serve so that the second player can decide whether he would rather return the serve or let his opponent return it, and that henceforth tennis will be about having the most mediocre serve possible, so that neither player has any advantage... what do you think I would say about that? What would you say? What would serious tennis players say?
This is an interesting comparison. The one problem I see with it is that tennis solves the problem of the first move advantage by playing a series of games. In go that isn't in option (in an amateur tournament or casual play), so some other solution must be found. I tend to agree that komi is the best one.
Ah, I must have missed jts's post when I read the thread the first time -- I'm not convinced the comparison is so apt.
Tennis actually does have a pie-rule that is often used - rallying for serve. Instead of freezing time, they simply agree that first serve is determined by an initial provision point is not valid until there have been some number (usually about four) of shots in play. The winner of that point then gets to serve.
