The Go handicap system is nonsense

written 2026-04-20

In Go, games between players of different skill levels are often balanced using a handicap, which is a number of free moves given to black (who plays first, and is traditionally the less skilled) at start. But the way they calculate it is nonsense.

More context: in Go, ranks are measured in "kyu" or "dan", which is supposed to measure how many handicap stones you would need for an even game. For example, if you're 10 kyu and your opponent is 5 kyu, then supposedly, you would have an even game with 5 handicap stones.

The nonsense is that the handicap stones are considered to *be* black's first turn, so white actually plays first in handicap games. So 1 handicap stone is the same as 0.

Go also has komi, a few points given to white to balance the advantage of going first. Handicap games are traditionally played without it, so a handicap of 1 just means no komi, whereas a handicap of 2 means no komi *and* black is 1 move farther ahead than default. But this doesn't fix the system, because komi is meant to balance the advantage of going first, which is being *half* a move ahead on average, so it's worth half a move. So the first level of handicap is worth half as much as each other level.

It very frustrates me that the Go community universally adopts this system and no one talks about this obvious flaw. The correct way to implement this system would be to still have komi, but have black play first in addition to the handicap stones.