Given that the number of stones a player has on the board is related to the number of prisoners the opponent has taken, the resulting net score (the difference between Black and White's respective scores) under both rulesets is often identical and rarely differs by more than a point.

Each of these scoring methods has advantages and disadvantages. There have been some efforts to agree on a standardized set of international rules. Those rules with a degree of recognition from the International Go Federation include the rules of the World Amateur Go Championship, based on the Japanese rules, and those of the First World Mind Sports Games of October 2008, essentially based on the Chinese rules with some compromise elements towards the Japanese and Korean rules.