Under Japanese (and Korean) rules, there occur situation in the end game in which it may be difficult to determine whether a particular group is alive or dead,

Under Japanese (and Korean) rules, there occur situation in the end game in which it may be difficult to determine whether a particular group is alive or dead, but the player who would need to play in order to play it out and determine for certain may not want to do so as doing so would fill in their own territory, reducing their score. Japanese rules have a variety of special cases to deal with this problem, but most beginners don't know them, and many beginners may not know exactly when to stop (as they are unsure if a group is safe or not), and so may wind up reducing their score in the endgame just because they are trying to make sure a group is safe. Under area scoring rules (Chinese, Tromp-Taylor, AGA, New Zealand, Ing, etc), you count the sum of your territory and your stones on the board, avoiding this problem. AGA has a hack that makes both scoring methods work the same; whenever you pass, you give your opponent an extra prisoner. Here's an overview of the different rulesets: http://www.britgo.org/rules/compare.html http://www.britgo.org/rules/compare.html