The komi for 9x9

Hey,

I'm starting to get a bit bothered by the lower komi for 9x9, even though black's advantage is undeniably much stronger on the small board. The counter-argument is that there are less points on the smaller board, so each komi point also has a far larger impact on the game. However, most high-dan players advocate 6.5, if not 7 or even 7.5 points of komi for the 9x9. Since games tend to be much more even than on 19x19, the difference of single points in tactical decision-making is noticeable on 9x9 even in kyu-level games.

Therefore, I'd like to propose raising the komi for 9x9 to either 6.5 or 7 points. GoQuest, a recently popular service for fast 9x9 games, uses 7.

ah, interesting.... I wish I had read this (above) before I replied to your post in the other thread ( "Komi pie, lengthening the title?" )... so I would guess you would recommend the same komi (6.5 or 7.0) for 13x13 games too; is that correct mmKALLL?  Does anybody else have any thoughts or opinions on this?

I guess 6.5 would be alright for 13x13 (most likely better than 5.5), but I believe that to be the least analyzed board size of the three standard ones.

IDK, but if a komi of 7 is fair for both 9x9 and 19x19, I would guess it is also fair for 13x13. {"fair" meaning it results in equal number of wins for both Black and White in large data-sets of equal skilled players}

ping (to get the attention of Thule )

 - anybody have any other thoughts?

Well, I don't know about komi on 13x13 and 19x19, but on 9x9 it should be exactly 7 to be fair.

I know that a draw is possible then, but with ideal play, they all draw with komi 7.

And 6.5 is way better than the 5.5 OGS uses ;o)

It is slightly favourable for black, while 7.5 is slightly favourable for white.

So I am for komi on 7 of keeping it like it is (white is normally the stronger player and must be able to beat that 0.5)

You can't assume fair komi constant, regardless of size. Even aside from the obvious case of 2x2 komi being 3.0 and 5x5 komi being 24.0, it wouldn't surprise me if it wiggles around a bit at smaller sizes before asymptotically approaching some constant for very large boards.

I'm also very curious in how T420 knows that a draw is possible with 7 komi. That being said, for 9x9 specifically I stand behind 6.5 or maybe 7.

That being said, since making this thread I've noticed that there can be large skill differences on the 9x9 board too. These days I'm less inclined on complaining about komi and more inclined on improving my play. :)