Editing Rules of Go (section)

=== Attempts at reconciling the scoring systems ===
If the game ends with both players having played the same number of stones, then the result will be identical in territory and area scoring: indeed, the difference of stones on the board will equal the difference of prisoners and hence the difference of score will be the same.   

AGA rules call for a player to give the opponent a stone ("passing stone") when passing, and for White to play last (passing a third time if necessary).<ref>http://www.usgo.org/resources/downloads/completerules.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}</ref> Because of passing stones, when one player passes and the second makes a move the difference of prisoners changes exactly the same way as the difference of stones on the board. 

White's second pass is crucial when Black takes last dame. Since Black takes the last dame he made 1 move more than White. By taking the last dame Black gets 1 point under area scoring, but 0 points under territory scoring. To make territory and area scoring equal we need to give Black 1 additional point in territory scoring. Hence White's second pass. Thus, in AGA rules, the result using a territory system is always the same as it would be using an area scoring system.<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://www.britgo.org/files/rules/agasummary.pdf|title = AGA Rules Summary|quote = Area counting may only be used by prior agreement between both players. It will give exactly the same game result as the Territory Counting rules above.|author = Ron Bell|year= 2007|access-date = 2024-08-11}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~wjh/go/rules/AGA.commentary.html|title = The American Go Association Rules of Go: Commentary Appendix: Demonstration of the Relationship of Area and Territory Scoring|quote= This appendix shows that with normal play, under the given rules the "area" and "territory" scores of a game will always be the same. |date=1991-04-01|access-date =2024-08-11}}</ref>

The results for stone and area scoring are identical if both sides have the same number of groups. As mentioned above, the "[[#Group tax|group tax]]" used in some older rulesets of two points per group gave identical results to both territory and stone scoring.