Overview and Variants

One variant is to apply the blocking rule to diagonal strengths as well. This is what has been implemented on the Gorrion site and is probably better for a larger board, otherwise, with a number of higher stacks, calculating strength combinations can be very challenging.

With a larger board, the game tends to proceed in four stages: initial layout, then positional sparring where an initial attempt is made to cordon off and restrict segments of the board; at a midpoint maximum claims are made, after which territory starts to contract as configurations come into contact and conflict; this third stage is the most critical, as there will be conflict in several places simultaneously, and the decisions as to where to defend or attack will be significant and result often in life or death and higher stacks; a final stage, which could be called 'mopping up', takes advantage of remaining points which can be claimed or neutralised; if the game is close this can also be decisive. A good game on a 10x10 board which shows all these stages is at www.dashstofsk.net/gorrion.php?op=g&id=1008. (If you create a login, you can replay the game on this site.)

In the Gorrion implementation, to help equalise strengths and also to make for varied play, the centre square (odd sized board) or squares (even sized board) cannot be used for the initial play. There is also a 1.5 territory point komi for the first player.

One way to learn the game would be to start with very small sized boards, 3x3 upwards, and respecting the above rules (previous paragraph) try to work out optimum play.