I'm interested in the game of Go (though a nearly total beginner at actually playing it), so I was interested in the game shown in the Kiku Matsuri fiction. I've squinted at the board, and re-created what I think is that game's position in my computer's Go software. Some parts of the board are not visible, so I've marked those with an X in the image (including two stones, one white and one black, that I think are in those places but I'm not 100% sure). Any other Go players want to dissect this game and see who has the advantage in it?

Um, yeah! Lemme see what I can see ...

I think we can assume white has the bottom right corner. It looks a little strange overall; it could be that the stones are placed to look good in a small image. It might also be possible to discover if this is an actual game. There are online databases that have "position search" tools.

Upon a second glance, this is not a professional game. Black's shape in the middle is nonsense unless there was a big white captured group there, and that's also nonsense.

From my limited knowledge of the game, having seen my grandfather play it years and years ago, I would have to say that White has the advantage in the game depicted in the OP.

White should continue with an advance (I believe that is the correct word) into the upper left of the board (I believe the description would be to threaten and then advance???), along the 17 and 18 rank in the middle of the board. Other than that I can only suppose what other moves would benefit White and equally what would benefit Black.

I wholly agree with Kakita Shijin above due to the stones placed in the middle of the board. Just awfully impractical, given my limited memory of "proper placement" of stones. But again, I haven't played this game in years.

((( K2 for white does not make sense. 05 for black does )))

According to the score estimator of my favorite Go app, white is ahead by 4.5 points. Of course, that's with komi, and I'm sure Rokugan has no komi. So with only the visible stones black is ahead by a small margin. But assuming the bottom right is white's, white has a significant lead.

I would upload the image, but it's "too big" despite being a screenshot from my phone.

On 8/20/2017 at 7:06 AM, Kakita Shijin said:

Upon a second glance, this is not a professional game. Black's shape in the middle is nonsense unless there was a big white captured group there, and that's also nonsense.

I didn't notice that at first, but you're right. However, this is a plausible amateur game: all the 4-4 corner points are taken except the one we can't see (and it's very plausible that White has that point), and there are no *glaringly obvious* mistakes, at least from a beginner's point of view. (Black's shape in the middle is bad, but I didn't notice it until you mentioned it.) Whereas the Go board that is visible in the movie Tron: Legacy is a lot less plausible as a game (way too many stones on the edge of the board, for one thing). I wouldn't be surprised if the Go game from the Kiku Matsuri story was painted by the artist playing a game himself and taking a photo of it partway through, or going down to his local Go club and asking permission to take a photo of a game in progress.

9 minutes ago, rmunn said:

I wouldn't be surprised if the Go game from the Kiku Matsuri story was painted by the artist playing a game himself and taking a photo of it partway through, or going down to his local Go club and asking permission to take a photo of a game in progress.

or they googled a go board and winged it... ^_~

I showed this to my husband, who plays a lot of Go. He said it looks like several parts of different games superimposed on the same board.