Issue: Handicap

[labriola]

I think the handicap logic is a little off. Right now a handicap of 1 means that black's stone is placed and then it is immediately white's turn. I could be wrong as I have never played with handicap before, however, looking at the traditional rules, this is the information I found.

If I am missing something, please feel free to disregard.

1 Black plays his first stone as he wishes, and gives no komi
2 Black plays the star points to his upper right and lower left
3 Black adds the star point to his lower right
4 Black takes all four corner star points
5 Black adds the center star point
6 Black takes all three star points at left and right
7 Black adds the center star point
8 Black takes all star points except the center
9 Black takes all nine star points

[ligi]

that matches with whats stated in wikipedia - but I dont know how to make it transparent to the user what is happening - he would not see the difference beteween no handicap and a handicap of 1 until the game ended
Perhaps i will find a way to do this but right now i leave it as it is - i think its not an big issue

[labriola]

When you set a handicap of 1, black's stone is automatically placed. Data I can find suggests black still plays the stone but gives no komi. Not a big deal

[oren740]

The term of handicap of 1 is a bit odd since handicap number refers to the number of handicap stones placed. A rank difference of 1 usually means what you're describing of take black with no komi. I do agree the logic should change so a handicap of 1 does what you're suggesting though.

[oren740]

Checked in code so handicap stones placed when 2 or more, komi of 0 with any handicap. Hopefully this works for everyone.

Note that you can only use handicap on sizes 9,13,19 size boards.

[oren740]

Should this be closed now?

[gthazmatt]

For as long as I've been using it (including currently), komi is still 6.5 when there are handicap stones. Also, as was mentioned in the original post, the handicap stones for 6 and 8 stones are misplaced. As I use the app for recording games, it has made a few a little difficult.

[ligi]

ok to boil down this issue

• set komi to 0 if handicap is 2 stones or more
• correct handicap placing for 6 and 8 stones

?

[gthazmatt]

Essentially, although a handicap of 1 stone should also have no komi. I suppose it's not terribly useful as the difference between 1 stone and 2 stones is 4 points, but that's convention. Also, it's common to use 0.5 rather than 0 to avoid a tie.

I made a fork and made a change GoGame.java that I believe does both of these things, but since it was 2 in the morning, I didn't test it. In particular, I don't know offhand if this updates the komi value in the metadata. When I get home tonight, I'll try to test it and submit a pull request unless you work on it before then.

[ligi]

thanks - looks good to me now - you are right with the removing - PS: do you have a Google+ Page where I can link to for your credit and cirlce you into the contributor circle?