I agree with that. I have no idea why I wrote this solution.
Also it seems that some important tests are missing.

Not if the number of items is less than 2.

Nice challange, however I feel there were too much hints in the comments. :) At least I was able to solve in an hour with your answer.

Wow, this was hard. :)

My current implementation also not supports multiple calls. It was in my mind to do it, but forgot. Then I realized that the tests are passing. :) I think at least the case when you call the handicapStones function again, but with lower value than before should be tested, as it will end with a wrong setup.

game.handicapStones(5);
game.handicapStones(3); // -> my implementation leaves 5 stones on the board

Yeah, I see that it would break most solutions. So, as you think.

I'm not sure it's a big issue, but I think there's no test about calling handicapStones more than once.

I've just solved the Kata and I think the description was helpful and easy to understand. 👍

I think in this case it's hard to describe the task without sharing the solution. I agree with you that this can be confusing.

Nice idea, quite hard to solve it (not the algorithm, but to keep the code simple and straightforward).

Thanks for your feedback, I've learned a lot. I'm unpublishing this one. :)

OK, I see. I've just added example tests, so I think the expectations are more clear now.

I think it's a misunderstanding, as your solution will not pass my tests.