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this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2024
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Newbies are often afraid or insulted to use "handicap" pieces, but the few free pieces given to a lower-rank player are actually quite effective at adjusting the balance with unevenly ranked players. It's not a huge advantage and doesn't fundamentally change the play of the game.
Using different sizes of board is also neat. I'm very fond of a short game using only a 9x9 board. Plays a lot faster, but trades strategy for a more tactical game.
I made this mistake! I started learning Go years and years ago, and it turned out the company where I was working at that time had a former 7-dan amateur player. When he found out I was learning he offered to play me, which I eagerly accepted. I didn't know this at the time, but 7-dan amatuer is the highest Go ranking one can achieve in Japan without playing professionally (there are separate 1-dan through 9-dan ranks for pros). For our first game, he offered to give me the full 9-stone handicap since I was just starting out. I thought that sounded excessive and suggested a 6-stone handicap instead, so that's what we did. He fucking destroyed me that game. It was not even remotely close. For the rematch, I humbly accepted the full 9-stone handicap.
Did those extra three stones make enough of a difference?
Well, he still won that second game but the outcome wasn't as lopsided. It definitely made the game more interesting for both of us.
No offense, but the extra stones just made it so he could go easy on you. When I started go, the new player challenge was to end a 9 stone handicap game against the resident 3-dan with a "positive" score. [0]
[0] most official scoring methods either ignore captured stones, or count them as positive points for the player who captured them. However, when scoring by hand, it is easier to count them as negative points for the person who lost them; so thats what we did.
I personally don't like the experience of playing with more than 3-4 handicap stones. For the weaker player, every move it's like "What is my opponent up to now? I am still ahead, I should just play safe." and for the stronger player it's like "How can I force my opponent to make mistakes?". These thoughts are sometimes part of an even game but not as frequently.