For those games which use the "swap" rule, the PBMserv game record has never recorded whether swap was used or not. The only games which I know use swap are Twixt, Hex, and Y. One nice aspect of swapping on this server is, players actually switch sides, which is how swap is supposed to work. I don't want that to change. Maybe a line "swap was used" could be added to the record when swap is used.
Twixt is probably the only game which uses row handicapping. The smallest handicap is 0, which means the board stays the same shape, but swap is disallowed. For larger handicaps, one edge of the board moves closer to the opposite. So, for nonzero handicap, one could determine a game is handicap by examining the text-graphics. All handicap games are unrated, so completed games which are listed by PBMserv as unrated must have been handicap games (I think.) The problem here lies with a new challenge. If a player challenges me to a 0 handicap game, PBMserv does not tell me that I should not swap. (Maybe it won't allow swap if I try it, which I haven't done.) I'm hoping the word "handicap" could be explicitly displayed in the game record.
If the game record display is changed, I hope this will not interfere with all those programs that import PBMserv text records into specific game database managers...
Thanks!
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