This week I really plowed into that pile of unread fanfics on my
harddisk and there is one misconception that I saw turn up in
several fics:  Genma and Souun are playing Go and one of them
tries to cheat by turning the board around.

Please take notice:  *That* *Doesn't* *work*!  OK?

Go is played by alternately placing black and white pieces on the
intersections of a grid, painted onto the board.  These stones are
simple, round pieces of whatever material they happen to be made
of, usually with an elliptic cross-section.  Once set, these
playing pieces remain at their position for the rest of the game,
unless they are "captured".  In that case, they are removed and
kept out of play;  They count as points for the capturer and are
deducted from the opponents score at the end of the game.

Cheating in Go would need to be the subtle altering of the pattern
laid out on the board, by adding or moving a piece.  *Turning the
board around* doesn't help in any way - the black pieces stay
black and the white ones white.

The turning trick would - if at all - help in Shogi, where (I am
told) the ownership of the playing pieces is not indicated by
color, but wedges cut into the base of the pieces.  You'd still
probably need to have a rather stupid opponent, for this to work,
but that's no problem for Genma and Souun.  :)


Sebastian (Doesn't play Go, but knows enough about it)
-- 
       <http://enterprise.mathematik.uni-essen.de/~bastian/>
                         Comics reviewed 
--
        PISCES (Feb. 19 - Mar. 20)
You have a vivid imagination and often think you are being
followed by the CIA or FBI.  You have minor influence over your
associates and people resent your flaunting of your power.  You
lack confidence and you are generally a coward.  Pisces people do
terrible things to small animals.