Talk:Go and mathematics

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Contents 1 Number of legal positions on 1x1 2 Longest Game? 3 Percentage of legal moves 4 Rename to "Go and mathematics"?

[edit] Number of legal positions on 1x1

The Tromp number is right, number of legal positions on 1x1 is 1 (empty board). Legal positions are those with no stones without liberties, and therefore both other 1x1 cases (single black/white stone) are illegal. For the 2x2 case, see page 3 of Tromp/Farneback, the position with 4 white stones is crossed, meaning it is illegal.

Also on the reference [1] for the 1x1 case, I could not find anything on legal 1x1 positions, only on the longest possible game (4 moves, allowing suicide and no positional superko). This includes a 1x1 diagram featuring a white stone, but that is used to illustrate the suicide move, not a legal position.

I take it that you are referring to the fact that the only legal board position for a 1x1 board is the blank board, because the position illustrated has no liberties? If so I will remove the 1x1 board as not playable. Myself I prefer the play of one stone as shown in the reference. 199.125.109.106 22:13, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Longest Game?

With a triple Ko or Eternal Life configuration the game is infinitely long... Isn't that a critical oversight?Doomed Rasher 15:09, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

Calculations such as these are generally based on the use of a Superko rule. HermanHiddema 08:00, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

10^48 is as close to infinity as I care to see anyway, and much more interesting than the trivial observation of triple Ko, however if you want to add the observation, feel free to do so. Putting 20 stones on the board and making a triple Ko out of it and playing the triple Ko for the rest of your life is not very interesting. 199.125.109.106 02:04, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Percentage of legal moves

In the tabel a percentage of 1.1196% is given for a 19x19 board, whereas just above in the text the figure of 1.196% is given. Which of these is the correct one? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.51.216.132 (talk) 18:28, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

I have looked it up in the original paper by Tromp and Farnebäck, and 1.196% is the correct number. I have edited the page to correct the error, thanks for pointing it out! HermanHiddema (talk) 20:13, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Rename to "Go and mathematics"?

I'm proposing to rename this article to "Go and mathematics" or "Mathematics and go". That would allow inclusion of more mathematics related material, such as the invention of surreal numbers by Conway due to his research into the game of go. Inclusion of such material would enable us to flesh out the article and maybe push for GA or FA in the future. The current scope is rather limited, and all of the tables make that the article is lacking in prose and as such would probably not pass GA or FA. HermanHiddema (talk) 14:43, 14 April 2008 (UTC)