Own gobana

After a long struggle with my own fears, I still started playing Go . Dmitry Skiryuk rendered invaluable assistance in this difficult task for me. I’m playing so far not so much, but I’m not going to quit what I started. I hope that constant practice and (moderate) reading of educational literature will help to raise my so far low level.

In this article, I will not talk about the game itself, its varieties, tactics and strategy. I want to talk about only one tool, which is absolutely necessary for the development of each novice player (there are a lot of pictures under the cut). 

New wonderful world

My acquaintance with Go began with the KGS server. Although Dmitry claims that finding a partner for the game in Kazan is not a problem, virtual communication, at the initial stage, seems to me a more convenient alternative. The KGS server provides everything you need for this. In addition to the active (and quite friendly) community, there is the possibility of playing with bots of various levels. For a Russian-speaking player, the KGS server is attractive due to the presence of the “Russian Room”.

The game interface is available, in the form of a Java applet, directly from a Web browser. You will need to install Java and enter the address of the KGS server in the “Exception Site List” of its security settings:



If everything is done correctly, we will see the following:



Initially, you can log in as a "guest". The possibility of registering a permanent account will be provided subsequently. Communication with players on the server occurs in the "rooms". These are specialized chats with the ability to track games between players. You can fight with an opponent waiting for a call (in the list they are marked in bold) or create your own party. You can also join (as an observer) to the game of other players (if the game is not private).

Those who want to try their hand at the bots will have to connect the Computer Go room, which can be found in the Communication tab. You can go to the management of the list of available rooms using the main menu:



The choice of bots of different levels is quite wide (the level of a bot, like any other player, is indicated in square brackets after his name), from 30k (30 kyu) IdiotBot, to fairly strong bots of 1-3 dan. You can choose to play a weak bot, or play with a strong one, setting a head start from 1 to 9 stones.

Participation in rating lots is determined by the account settings:



Setting the flag will include more stringent restrictions on the size of the handicap, but it will also allow you to track the growth dynamics of your level, in a convenient graphical form:

All moves are recorded!

KGS plays the games you play carefully. On the server will be saved not only all the games played, but also the results of their analysis. Each of these records, at any time, can be viewed (and edited) by uploading it to any of the rooms (possibly in private mode):



On the analysis of the parties should be emphasized. In Go, especially after playing with a stronger player, it is customary to disassemble the game. During the game, as a rule, the player is limited in time to think about the move (of course, the game clock is also provided by the KGS server). Often, this leads to errors (especially in batches of beginners who are not used to time control). After completing the game, you can return to particularly unsuccessful moves and leisurely think over alternatives by consulting with your partner in the game and observers. All comments in the game chat are attached to the moves and are recorded in the party record. Here's what a disassembled batch might look like:



By the way, the splitter highlighted in the figure with a red rectangle tends to “collapse” down, which can lead a person who is not used to the KGS interface to some embarrassment. In this case, we see a fragment of a lecture, not a game, but the set of available tools does not change from this. Using the “tree” and navigation buttons, you can go to any move, make alternative moves (creating new branches), record comments on the moves, and use a variety of explanatory icons common in the Go world:

Own gobana

KGS web interface is good, but not perfect. The maximization and closing commands are not working out correctly; some functions (requiring access to the local file system) are not available from the applet. All these drawbacks are deprived of the implementation of the KGS client as a standalone Java application. Windows installation can be done directly from a web browser. Linux users also did not remain offended.



This application allows you to do everything that was accessible from the Web interface and even more. It makes it possible to download and edit SGF files! What is SGF? This is a common notation format for games such as Go, Renju, Hex, etc. Here is a fragment of such a file:



As you can see, this format is designed more for the computer than for humans, but this is for the better, because it allows you to save all the information related to the game (such as alternative branches of the game or text comments). CGoban is a full-fledged SGF editor for the Go game. In it you can create new SGF files, edit existing ones, upload batches in SGF format to your disk, etc. Of course, this is not the only implementation of the SGF editor. Alternatives can be found here .

The importance of such a utility for a beginner in Go is hard to overestimate. More experienced players can read kifu easily, but newcomers have difficulty perceiving such a record. The sequence of moves, as a rule, is perceived normally. The difficulty is associated with the perception of later moves as empty space on the board. In order to understand the course of the game in kif, the beginner needs to restore the sequence of moves on the gobana - a board for playing Go, but the gobana costs a lot of money. Its virtual alternative, for a beginner, may turn out to be more acceptable and, moreover, more functional.