3.4 The Two Types of Concise and Complete Area Rules
Formulations of the two types of area rules described so far are given
in Part I, together with a third type of area rules and three types of
territory rules.
Area rules I and II differ on whether there is a cutting bonus, and on
whether points like 'a' and 'b' in Dia. 3-3-4 are counted. The situation
in Dia. 3-3-4 is that White has no possible move anywhere. The chance
that such a situation will ever occur in actual play is vanishingly
small, so for all practical purposes, the only difference between these
two area rules is the cutting bonus.*
Another scoring difference between area rules I and area rules II
occurs in seki positions where one side has an eye that cannot be filled
in. In reference diagram 1, area rules I deprive Black of one point in
the bottom left and two points in the bottom right.