Elwyn Berlekamp's Coupon Go

What's the best way to measure the exact value of a move in the game of Go? That's the question Prof. Elwyn Berlekamp, a founder of the field of "combinatorial game theory" (the study of games of no chance), was trying to answer when he created this Go variant. Play proceeds as in a normal game, except that each player also has access to a stack of coupons of decreasing value. At each move the player chooses to play a move, or take a coupon, thereby declaring in effect that no move on the board is worth more than the value of that coupon.

To see Dr. Berlekamp's lecture about "Coupon Go":

Click here for Part I

Click here for Part II

Click here for Part III

Click here for Part IV

Several demonstration matches and tournaments have been staged, most recently in Korea, featuring six professionals in a round-robin playoff organized by The Department of Baduk Studies at Myong-ji University in Seoul. Click here to download kifus of those games. Many thanks to Bill Spight for all of his work at the tournament itself, and then preparing these records for publication.

As a mathematician, Dr. Berlekamp thinks differently about the game than most players. To him, a "correct" move doesn't just win a game against your normal opponent, it is a "statement that is provably true. “I'm seeking perfection at a level that may not be humanly attainable."