# Which side has winning strategy in Go?

Go is actually a finite two-person game of perfect information and cannot end in a draw. Then by Zermelo's theorem, it is exactly one of the two has winning strategy, either Black or White.

So my question is which one? the Black or the White?

Update: Despite of the game is too large to calculate directly, my (roughly) idea is to prove inductively, from 3x3, 4x4 until 19x19. If for any $n$, one player(suppose black) has winning strategy, then it seems a conclusion that the player(black) has winning strategy.

Update: It seems the result is also rely on the scoring rule.

So another idea is to consider scoring rules, since the more compensation the White earned, the higher probability the winning strategy White has. Different results may be yielded within area scoring and territory scoring.

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I thought it was well known that the answer is not known. (And it seems Zermelo might not have called what you call Zermelo's theorem a theorem.) – Did Nov 5 '12 at 15:00
I see no reason to think answering this question is within our current capability. – GEdgar Nov 5 '12 at 15:00
The induction idea in the Update sounds very strange to me. In fact, I wonder what the inductive step from 3x3 to 4x4, for example, could look like. – Did Nov 5 '12 at 15:06
Go has been being played for thousands of years, and komi is in an increasing tendency, used to be $3.5$, $4.5$, now it is $6.5$. I think finding the right komi is equivalent to your question. And it is still only guessed. – Berci Nov 5 '12 at 16:23
Your update two is also not true. The concept of mirror go is well studied and while it can in principle give an advantage, mindless copying certainly does not work. (The 15th chapter of the popular manga Hikaru no go is built upon this.) – Willie Wong Nov 5 '12 at 16:29