Komi (込み, コミ) in the game of Go are points added to the score of the player with the white stones as compensation for playing second.
[1] When introducing Environmental Go, Elwyn Berlekamp made a broad generalisation of komi to illustrate the practical value of the temperature concept from combinatorial game theory.
The compensation (komi) system was introduced into professional Go in Japan as a gradual process of innovation, beginning in the 1920s.
The Hisekai [ja], a Go organization established in 1922 and dissolved with the formation of the Nihon Ki-in in 1924, used a 4.5 point komi among its many rule innovations.
Statistical analyses of the year's games would sometimes appear in the Igo Nenkan (Kido Yearbook), backing up the intuition of many top players.
[4] Since very minor mistakes can cost one point, discussion of the 'true' value for komi makes little sense, except at the level of the top-ranked players in the world.
In the days before komi, White as second player had to disrupt the smooth working of Black's classical strategies, described sometimes as aiming for a sure win by 3 points.
The 3-3 point became an interesting play for White, where previously it appeared experimental, and was developed in particular by Go Seigen and Sakata Eio.
However under area scoring rules and in the absence of Seki the perfect Komi can be shown to be an odd integer and statistics from professional and computer play suggest that 7 is the correct value.
A fixed number of points, determined by the Go organization or the tournament director, is given to the second player (White) in an even game (without handicaps) to make up for first-player (Black) advantage.