Newsgroups: rec.games.go
Subject: Re: alternative goban topologies? (was: Go vs other b
From: wft@math.canterbury.ac.nz (Bill Taylor)
Date: 26 Aug 92 14:55:48 +1200
Distribution: world
Organization: Department of Mathematics, University of Canterbury

>has anybody tried playing go on a
>board with hexagonal or triangular grid, where stones could have at most
>three (or six, respectively) liberties?  And how about a board with no edges 

Yes, I posted about this a little while ago.

Hex go, (6 liberties), is quite fun. I have played this several times. Once
on a big board, but mostly on a 91-point board (similar to 9x9 go). It is
a good game for relaxation between rounds at go tournaments. I warmly
recommend it, for these occasions at least.

Hex go is a far more strategic game than regular go. There are no tactical
complications like cross-cuts, ko, ladders etc. But the basic ideas of
aji, kikashi, sente, 2 eyes, connecting, etc are all present. It is a little bit
more like Piet Hein's "hex" connection game than like real go, perhaps. (For
instance, you can create a bamboo joint between just two stones !) It's fun 
just to investigate the minimal dead and unsettled big-eye shapes; they're
quite a bit bigger than those for regular go ! (which has 6 minimal unsettled,
7 for seki).  Seki still exists in hex go. (Maybe even a little more common).

Tri-go, (3 liberties), I've not played (I think), but have fiddled with quite
a bit. Just as hex go is far more strategic, tri-go is far more tactical !!
Ladders can begin as soon as a contact move is played ! With nothing else nearby,
such a ladder is its own ladder-break !!!!!!  Kos, double-kos, multi-step kos
and worse abound all over. Indeed, it can be *very* tricky to be sure that
a group is unconditionally alive, especially on a small board. The edges are
trickier than usual.  I would like to find a real person to play these two
games against; but it's fun to fiddle with tri-go, (playing against youself,
if you can handle that scene).  I get the feeling though, that with its massive
tactical instability, tri-go would be a little unsatisfactory.

Hex and tri go can both be played on the same board, if you don't mind
playing inside the cells (yuk!) for one of them.

Of course, quad go, (4 liberties) that we all know and love, is ideally placed
between these two variants in terms of strategy vs tactics; hence its greatness.


I've often thought it would be fun to play go on (say) a big cube. The faces and
edges would be like the centre of the board at regular go, but the 6 corners
would have 3 liberties each (a little like tiny real-go-edges, maybe!)

I *have* fiddled a little with playing go on a torus; have even programmed up to
record/referee such a game on screen. It's like regular go with no corners or
edges of any type at all, of course. But again, I get the feeling it would be 
a little unsatisfactory - takes too long for any real conflict to develop.

Looking forward to hearing from others with comments on these variants.

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            Bill Taylor              wft@math.canterbury.ac.nz 
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                 I think, therefore I am; (I think).
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Newsgroups: rec.games.go