[Jach]

I still prefer Japanese counting since it takes a lot less time to count (at least for me) a full 19x19 board. The only way white loses points (relative to black) by being forced to "play it out" is if black passes -- but the AGA resolves that by requiring you to give up a pass stone as a prisoner when you pass, and if the game has ended and you have to play it out, passes aren't allowed.

The next AI challenge is to have the AI make an argument that will convince everyone to adopt the One True Most Elegant Ruleset for Go. (http://warp.povusers.org/go/RulesElegance/ is an interesting page, along with his proposal: http://warp.povusers.org/go/MyRulesProposal/)

[mrob]

Chinese counting is just as fast once you're used to it. Remember that you only need to count one player under Chinese rules. And the AGA rules are a nice hack to Japanese rules to make them always give the same result as Chinese rules and avoid trolling/unreasonable plays, but it's still more complicated to explain to beginners than Chinese rules.