Jigo

Jigo refers to a tied result in Go, occurring when both Black and White finish with the same number of points at the end of the game. Historically, before the introduction of fractional komi values, tied games were more common and were officially recorded as draws.

In modern Go, komi—the points given to White to compensate for Black’s first-move advantage—is typically set to a fractional value (e.g., 6.5 or 7.5), which eliminates the possibility of jigo in most cases. However, a draw can also occur in situations other than an equal score. For instance, triple ko and other rather uncommon board positions that can lead to a forced tie if neither player can break the cycle.

• Triple ko: A rare situation where three separate ko fights create an infinite loop, leading to a forced draw if neither player concedes.

Tiebreaking and Rule Variations

Different tournament rules have handled jigo in various ways:

• In some historical Japanese tournaments (e.g., the old Meijin title matches), jigo was awarded as a win to White.
• Ing’s rules assigned an 8-point komi but declared Black the winner in the event of a jigo.
• Under Chinese rules, jigo is considered exceptionally rare because the total score under area scoring is usually an odd number. It can only occur in rare cases involving a seki with an unusual shared liberty configuration.