Re: [gnugo-devel] GnuGo / CGoban breakage with handicap > 9

[Gunnar Farnebäck]

Stuart wrote:
> When I set a handicap of greater than 9 in CGoban for a game in which
> GnuGo is a player CGoban crashes and I get the message:
> 
> "GNU Go: Sorry, error from gmp client"
> 
> CGoban permits handicaps on 0-27 (but not "" for no handicap, but that's
> another issue), but GnuGo appears to only understand 0-9.

This is basically a Go Modem Protocol limitation. While it's possible
to say that a Japanese handicap is larger than 9 stones there's no
support for telling where those stones are located. The location of
handicap stones is not specified for more than 9 stones and GNU Go
refrains from guessing where the client expects them to be and instead
gives an error.

Paul wrote:
> GMP is an outdated protocol and I believe no one of current developers
> really understand it.  To the best of my knowledge, it is impossible to
> use free-placement handicap over GMP.

Well, the specification talks about Chinese handicap rules too but
only says "The handicap passes by White are not transmitted.". I'm
pretty sure GNU Go hasn't tried to implement that.

/Gunnar