Hope that LG will soon account for the advantage of the first-move player by giving the 2nd-move player 1.5 points (I think 1.5 is a fair number :)) or by using the swap option.
We already used the swap for Hex and Twixt. There is no reason why we cannot do the same for Amazons.
I was trying to say: after the 2nd-move player (black) finishes playing his last move, if 2 empty squares remain in the white player's territory, white wins. If only 1 remains in the white's territory, black wins.
There must be a better way of saying this outcome. :)
Even so, I still prefer to play white. So, I tend to think that perhaps 1.5 pts are not enough.
Your intepretation, Tim, is like 1 pass in Taz's interpretation. Black moves (last available), White moves, Black passes, White can move win (no move, he loses).
Perhaps 2 passes would make the game more balanced, but who knows?
Funny, last time i made a statistic about that game on littlegolem, black won more games than white. Same holds true on another website where you can play Amazons:
In chess, white is said to have the advantage and there has never been any compesation for that and never will be, just have to find a little different stradigy and play better defense!
Well dude, that's one of the reasons why chess sucks. ;-)
Michael: I am not really sure where you got the numbers, shouldn't it be white 2111 (49.84%) and black 2124 (50.15%) ? Also, how can the sum be less then 100% while draws are impossible in amazons?
As for the komi for amazons, my level of play isn't high enough to see any difference so I can't tell (but think that I personally don't need it).
