The Rules of Go

Supplement 01, Page 02
But What if They Don't Agree?

There are three possible scenarios which result in a disagreement. Two of them are rather simple, mechanically, but one can be a biggie! Lets start with the hard one first:

Disagreement about the Status of a Group

— In other words - one player claims a group is alive, while the other is sure it is dead.

This is potentially a disagreement impossible to mediate. Think about it - to really determine a status of a group in a complex position, you would need to know the best possible moves from both sides - and only then would you be able to declare the group's status without fail! But there can be positions in which such best (or perfect) play is very hard to find, maybe impossible!

Fortunately, in a vast majority of the cases, the situation is much simpler - and the players only disagree because they lack the knowledge and experience to determine the status. When this occurs, in formal (tournament) setting, the course of action depends on the rules you use and maybe on the decision of the judges. In informal settings (like a friendly club game), there are several ways of dealing with the impasse.

• Good idea is to try and talk it out with your opponent. Give him/her your reasons for claiming the status, and listen carefully to his/her reasons. Chances are, one of you will convince the others, or one of you will see a mistake in your reasoning. Case closed.
• If the above leads nowhere, you may take out another board, put the local position up, and try to play it out. You might even play it out on the actual game board on which the game was played - this will change the final position, of course, but this might or might not matter depending on the rules you use (under area scoring the extra moves will probably not matter, while under territory scoring it might make a difference - more about formal rules and scoring methods here.)
• You might ask a strong(er) player if you have one handy. Often this is the best option - it leads to the fastest resolution and any explanations you may get as a by-product can prove invaluable in your next game.

Of course - there is no guarantee that the strong(er) player will know the answer, or that the answer (s)he gives will be the correct one. Likewise, there is no guarantee that you and your opponent can arrive at the correct answer by yourselves. But, in a friendly game, this is not a huge problem. Besides, most of the time you will be able to easily determine the result by one of the above means.

In a formal game, when the outcome is more important, the situation might be more complicated, and other means may be used. Including invalidating the game and playing out another one. But that depends on the exact setting - used rules, tournament directors/organizers, referees, arbiters, etc. The point is that under such formal conditions, the decision is often ultimately out of your hands as a player, so there is no need to go into all the possible details here.

Disagreement about When to Pass

This situation can occur when one player passes while the other keeps making moves. There are two possible scenarios here:

1. Your opponent refuses to pass

Lets assume it is your opponent who refuses to pass. This usually means one of three things:

He still sees opportunities to make gains

Look at the board carefully, evaluate the moves (s)he makes, do these moves hurt your groups or territories? Do these moves increase his/her territories? If so, maybe you passed too early and thus missed some opportunities. If you are certain that your moves gain you points (or can potentially gain you points), keep playing.

One possible (and common) occurrence of this situation is if there are still places on the board which need one of the players attention, but not immediately. Say, your opponent need to secure against your attack on some of his/her stones, but the need is not immediate - you have to make some moves first before you will be in a position to kill the stones (and before (s)he need to defend). In such case, your opponent may chose to pass while you make the leading moves and only defend once the need is immediate.

Position 1	Position 2 (White 2 - Pass)	Position 3

Fig 1. Possible passing by White

Figure 1 above demonstrate such situation. In Position 1, Black just played a B1, making the point 'a' a weak cutting point in White's position - White will have to defend at 'a' or 'b' at some point. But the need is not yet immediate, if Black plays at 'a' next, (s)he will gain nothing. So White Passes (as can be seen in Position 2) after which Black plays B3. If White passes again, Black will be able to play at 'c' next and White will lose two stones (the "how" is explained here.) So next White connects at W4. This is a perfectly proper sequence.

Once could argue that the proper thing to do would be for White to simple connect instead of passing on move 2, since the connection was inevitable anyway. But there is nothing in the rules to force White to do so, and it is his/her prerogative to pass or not. After all, if White passes, and Black passes too, the game will be over and White might end up with one extra point (since his territory is larger by 1 point because (e)he did not need to connect.)

He is unaware that the game is over and that he can pass

In this case, you can explain. You can clarify. You can teach and help. Easy. Case closed. :)

He is aware that the game is over but he keeps playing anyway

Some people are jerks! Its as simple as that! You can see this kind of behavior more and more often on the net, while playing on one of the servers. What you can and cannot do in such situation depends on the server and its admins. You can certainly report such player. And you can avoid playing with such player again.

In real face-to-face play, such thing never happened to me, so I am not quite sure what would I do. In a tournament game, I would certainly call a referee and complain. In a friendly game, I would probably just end the game (by resigning) and never play that person again.

2. You keep playing while the opponent passes

When this happens, what you need to do is to think really hard if the moves you make gain you any points. This can be rather confusing, especially to beginners, but usually there is a good reason why your opponent passes. Think about it. Maybe it is time for you to pass as well and the game to be counted?

On the other hand, your opponent may have been passing prematurely, and you can still make gains by continuing to play. In such case, you are certainly entitled to keep making moves. As long as you can see gains, even potential ones, keep playing.

Cluelessness about When to Pass on Both Sides

And yes, finally there is that! Probably the most common situation seen in games between two beginners. Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to this one. Time and games and experience will at some point life the veil of mystery, but for now just do what you feel is best. Asking a strong(er) player is a good idea if you have one around. Other than this, just read carefully all I wrote above, it will provide you with clues as to what kinds of things you need to consider when thinking about passing.

When in doubt, you might like to consider the following:

• Are you playing inside your own, fully enclosed territories? If so, don't. These moves may cost you points.
• Are you playing inside territories fully enclosed by your opponent? If so, don't. Chances are such moves bring you only loss.
• Is your opponent playing inside his own territories? If so, let him/her. Do not feel obliged to match him/her move for move. Just pass and see what happens. Often all it takes is one pass to clear things up.
• Is your opponent playing inside your fully enclosed territories? This is the toughest. You need to think long and hard if his moves pose a threat to you and so if you need to answer them or not. If you decide that no answer is necessary, you may pass. Depending on the rules used, you might be gaining a point.
• Are you and your opponent filling in neutral points (called "dame")? If so, it is a common practice. Just finish the with neutral points and pass. Just be careful about the kind of situations depicted in Figure 1. Once some of the neutral points are filled, you might need to make some defensive moves. Also, pay attention to your opponent's weaknesses - maybe (s)he will fail to defend at some point and you might make a gain?

As you can see, some of your actions with regard to passing or playing can be influenced by the kind of rules you use. I talk some more about that here. Also, I give some examples of positions in which passing is appropriate here.