Because a Go game is scored in terms of points of territory, adding a
few points to the threshhold for victory by the player with the first
move was a successful way of overcoming a tendency to defensive play by
the player with the first move in Go.

As well, an odd half-point was used to eliminate draws as an outcome of
play.

Changing the points given for a win or a loss, since each player in
Chess takes White and Black an equal number of times, wouldn't
necessarily have the same effect. But if the differences in credit for
different outcomes are changed, then different behavior can be driven.

One proposal that has been made is to give each player only 1/3 of a
point for a draw. Presumably the cat would eat the other 1/3 of a point,
reminiscent of tic-tac-toe. There are problems with that; it applies to
tournaments, but would be irrelevant in matches, and it would either
have to be ignored, or require mathematical contortions, to be taken
into account for Elo ratings or tournament pairings.

So instead of going in that direction, I thought to narrow the margin of
drawing by allowing partial credit for stalemates and bare King.

And, in addition, now that the example of _komidashi_ is before me, to
drive attacking behavior by somehow favoring the second player, the one
in Chess with the black pieces.

Here is what I propose; to make arithmetic simple, instead of fractional
points, let us give 10 points for the game.

White forces checkmate:
White 10, Black 0

White forces stalemate:
White 8, Black 2

White bares Black's King:
White 6, Black 4

Draw
White 4, Black 6

Black bares White's King:
White 2, Black 8

Black forces stalemate:
White 1, Black 9

Black forces checkmate:
White 0, Black 10

The scheme tilts in Black's favor, but selectively. Black still has the
disadvantage of not having the first move - and now White can even put
points on the board through bare King. So even though a draw is a slight
advantage to Black, Black can't be confident that defensive play will
prevent White from getting the slight advantage needed to win.

White, with the advantage, is given a larger incentive to take risks;
White receives the same score as Black for checkmate, but less for
inferior victories.

John Savard
http://www.quadibloc.com/index.html

On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:44:01 GMT, lid
(John Savard) wrote, in part:

White forces checkmate:
White 10, Black 0

White forces stalemate:
White 8, Black 2

White bares Black's King:
White 6, Black 4

Draw
White 5, Black 5

Black bares White's King:
White 2, Black 8

Black forces stalemate:
White 1, Black 9

Black forces checkmate:
White 0, Black 10

Giving White 4, and Black 6, for a draw, because colors alternate, would
have spoiled how this scheme works. A 4 1/2 - 5 1/2 split, or a 4.9 -
5.1 split could work, but the 4/6 split would have meant that the net
effect would be to give Black less credit for trying harder and getting
a stalemate or a checkmate - instead of the desired effect of giving
Black more credit for even achieving a bare King.

John Savard
http://www.quadibloc.com/index.html