Index
Help for Igowin

Welcome to Igo for Windows.  Igo (pronounced the same as the English word ego) is the Japanese name for this ancient game.  It’s called go in America and Europe, Wei-chi in China, and Baduk in Korea.

Go was invented thousands of years ago in China.  Its combination of simple rules, complex tactics, and deep strategy has maintained its appeal in every generation since.  About 1200 years ago go came to Japan, and became popular with the warrior class of Samurai. It came to Europe and the USA about 100 years ago.  Today there are many national and world championship tournaments, and several hundred professional players.

Click on one of the following topics to learn more.

The history of Go

Rules summary, or read through the rules tutorial by selecting Go Tutorial from the Help menu.

Professional players and tournaments

Where to get books and equipment

How to find a club

Find out about the American Go Association

Finding a go teacher

The go rating system

How to become a stronger go player

How to play go on the internet

Using this program

Information about The Many Faces of Go

Information about Smart Games


Play Go on the Internet

You can play go on the internet.  There are several go servers on the internet where hundreds of players can meet, talk, and play go.  The servers track your win/loss record, and your rating, so you can find fair games and opponents of about your level.  You can play games on various board sizes, and with handicaps.  Or you can watch games in progress.

All servers have a very basic, text interface with simple commands.  You can use this interface directly using Telnet and any internet software.  Much better graphics interfaces to the go servers are available, called Clients.  All servers use compatible client software.  Most of the clients are shareware, and are designed for a specific platform and operating system.  The best Windows-95 client software is TgWin, which is included on the Many Faces of Go CD-ROM, or you can download it from the Internet.  Many clients are available for download at ftp://igs.nuri.net

Note: Smart Games does not provide support for TgWin or the Internet Go server.

The largest server is the Internet Go Server (IGS).  Connect to it directly using telnet igs.nuri.net 6969.  This gets you a text interface and you can play go, but it is not pretty.  If you don’t want to use TgWin, you can ftp to igs.nuri.net and download other client software to use with IGS.  The American GO Association has a web page to help take you through getting a client up and running with IGS which can be reached from http://www.usgo.org/.  IGS is based in Korea and always has several hundred strong players logged on.  It hosts regular pro events, so you can watch pros play there.  You can find out more at http://igs.nuri.net

The IGS interface is English, but there are players from all over the world there, so some people you try to talk to may not have good English language skills.  Please be considerate of this.  IGS expects reasonable behavior from people on-line, and bad behavior, such as swearing, insults, or promoting competing go servers can get you banned.

There are smaller go servers in the USA, Japan, Europe, and Taiwan.  The most popular is NNGS, at telnet nngs.cosmic.org 9696.  See http://nngs.cosmic.org/~nngs for more information on this server.

You can also play go on the internet at AOL’s Worldplay (formerly INN), or Microsoft’s Internet Gaming Zone (http://www.zone.com), but there are few serious players at either of these places.


Becoming a stronger player

How to Become a Stronger Go Player

Experts suggest the following:

Play lots of go.  Play quick games, especially as a beginner.  You want to get an intuitive feel for the game, and thinking a long time when you are weak will not help you improve.  After each game, try to replay or record the game.  If you lost and your opponent is stronger, replay it together and ask where you went wrong.  Try to see how the final territories evolved from the initial placement of the stones.

Read books about go theory.  There are many good books in English now for all levels of players.  Until you are dan level, do not study Joseki sequences.  Unlike Chess, memorizing opening sequences will not help you get strong.  You must understand the meaning of each move if you study Joseki, and except for the simple ones, you won’t be able to do this until you are dan strength.

Replay professional games.  Play through a game, then try to replay it from memory.  Go quickly through a lot of games.  You are trying to get a feel for what good moves look like, not to understand the reasons for playing each one.

Solve life and death problems.  This will teach you how to read - look ahead several moves in a position.  Strong players are strong at life and death.  Many books of life and death problems are available from the go vendors.


Buying Books and Equipment

There are several publishers of English language go books.  Most also sell go equipment.

Yutopian Enterprises or Kiseido (different companies, same address)

2255 29th St., Suite 3

Santa Monica, CA 90405

(800)YUTOGO-3

Fax: (310) 392-7598

E-mail: yutopian@netcom.com

URL: http://www.webwind.com/go/

Ishi Press International

851 Hamilton Ave.

Menlo Park CA 94025

(415)323-6996

(800)859-2086

Fax: (415)323-6998

Samarkand

594 Broadway, Suite 909

New York, NY 10012

(800)600-4373

http://www.samarkand.net

Nemesis Enterprises/Toyogo

PO Box 8289

North Brattleboro, VT 05304

(800)TOYOGO-9

Fax: (802) 896-9449

Good Move Press

122 Duane St. #4D

New York, NY 10007

(800)600-4373

E-mail: 74237.3537@compuserve.com

URL: http://www.edge.net/~gmpress/

4th Line Press

138 Walnut St.

Clinton, MA 01510

E-mail: FourthLine@aol.com

URL: http://frosty.williams.edu:6969/~brad/FourthLine.html

On the internet,

Ibuki Trading Post

PO Box 1627

Los Altos CA 94022

E-mail: rww@best.com

URL: http://www.ippi.com/top_go.html

In Europe:

Schaak en Go Winkel Het Paard

Haarlemmerdijk 147

1013 KH Amsterdam

The Netherlands

++31 (0)20 624 1171

Fax: ++31 (0)20 627 0885

Chess and Bridge Ltd

369 Euston Rd

London, England, NW1 3AR

0171-388-2404

Most game stores carry go equipment, and some carry a few books.


Go Clubs

Most major metropolitan areas have one or more go clubs.  The oldest go club in the USA is the San Francisco Go Club.  The American Go Association maintains a list of go clubs, which can be found through their web site at http://www.usgo.org/.


Go Teachers

There are many professional go players in the USA who teach.  They include:

James Kerwin 1 Dan, the first American professional.  Teaches at several go workshops.

4243 Harriet Avenue South

Minneapolis, MN 55409

(612) 823-0699

Yilun Yang 7 Dan, who taught many of the strongest Chinese professionals before he came to the USA.  He teaches through e-mail at yly@netcom.com, or regular mail.  Teaches at several go workshops.

209 West Grand Avenue #9

Alhambra, CA 91801

(818) 457-9549

ZhuJiu (Jujo) Jiang 9 Dan, one of the top players in the world.  He teaches on the

Internet Go Server.

1057 Shell Boulevard #11

Foster City, CA 94404

(1) 	681-9172

Janice Kim 1 Dan

c/o Good Move Press

122 Duane Street #4D

New York, NY 10007-1125


American Go Association

The American Go Association

The AGA sponsors tournaments and maintains a national rating system for go players.  They publish a quarterly newsletter, maintain a set of web pages, and work to promote the game of go in the United States.  They also help clubs organize, maintain a list of clubs, and help people who want to teach go in schools.

Once a year, in August, they sponsor the US Go Congress, a one week go extravaganza, including the US amateur go championship, the finals of the US professional go championship, a handicap tournament, and the US computer go championship.  The congress tournaments determine the US representatives to the world amateur championship and the Fujitsu cup professional world championship.  Professional players from around the world attend to give advice, play simultaneous games, lecture on go, and give lessons.  It’s in a different area of the country each year, and every serious go player should consider attending.

AGA membership is $25 per year.  Contact the AGA at:

AGA

Box 397

Old Chelsea Station

New York, NY 10113

http://www.usgo.org


Go rules

Go Rules, in Brief

The basic rules of go are quite simple, even though the game has profound strategy and deep tactics.  For an in depth tutorial on the rules and basic concepts, look at the Go Rules Tutorial, from the help menu.

1.	Go is played on a board printed with a grid of lines, with black and white markers, called ‘stones’.  The standard size board is 19 lines by 19 lines, although smaller boards of 9x9 and 13x13 are used to teach beginners.

2.	The  board is initially empty, unless one player is weaker.  In this case the weaker player takes the black stones, and starts with some ‘handicap stones’ placed on the board.  Some rule sets specify the placement of the handicap stones, and some allow free placement by black.

3.	If there is no handicap, some rule sets specify a komi, which is compensation black gives to white for getting the first move.  Komi varies from 5.5. to 8 points.

4.	Black makes the first move.  If there is a handicap, the handicap stone placement counts as black’s first move.

5.	Players alternate moves, placing stones at the intersections of lines on the board.  A stone can be played on the edge or even in the corner of the board.  Once played, stones do not move, but may be captured.

6.	Stones that touch (left/right/up/down, but not diagonally), form groups.  Every group of stones must have at least one empty adjacent intersection (called a liberty).  If a stone is played that fills the last liberty of a group, that group is removed from the board as prisoners.

7.	Some rule sets forbid suicide, placing a stone that removes its own last liberty, which does not capture enemy stones.

8.	Repetition of a position is not allowed.  Different rule sets have various definitions of what repetition means.

9.	A player may pass his turn, usually when he has no way to gain more points.  When both players pass, the game is over.  Some rule sets require you to give your opponent a prisoner when you pass.

10.	At the end of the game, players agree on which stones are dead (must eventually be captured), and remove them from the board.  Different rule sets have various procedures for resolving disputes over which stones are dead.

11.	The score is the number of surrounded empty points, plus the number of prisoners taken.  Some rule sets count the score as surrounded empty points, plus the number of live stones on the board.  Generally the score will be about the same under all methods of counting.


Differences in go rules

Differences between Rule Sets

Each major country where go is played has its own set of official rules.  The game is basically the same under all rules, but there are some minor differences in counting the score and resolving disputes.

Scoring: The largest difference is in the procedure for counting the score.  The historically oldest method, still used in Japan, Korea, and most of the western world, is to count surrounded empty points plus prisoners.  At the end of the game, after dead stones are removed, prisoners are placed back on the board inside territory of the same color, and the remaining empty points are rearranged into rectangles for easy counting.

In China and areas influenced by China, a different counting method is used.  The score is the number of surrounded empty points, plus the number of live stones on the board.  At the end of the game, dead stones are removed and placed back in the bowls.  Empty points are rearranged into rectangles and adjusted to be a multiple of ten by taking stones off the board and putting them back in the bowls.  Then the remaining stones are counted, usually by arranging them into piles of 10.  The player with 181 or more points is the winner.  Only one color is counted.

Japanese rules have a more natural counting style, since the board position is just filled in.  Chinese rules allow you to play out any disputed life and death situations, but as the score is counted, the board position is totally destroyed.

Recently the American Go Association adopted rules that allow one to count using the Japanese method, but get the same result as the Chinese rules, combining the advantages of both rule sets.  However, the AGA rules require one to pay a point for each pass, and that white makes the last pass.  Some people find these two rules unnatural.  AGA rules allow players to count Japanese style or Chinese style by agreement of the players.  If they can’t agree, Japanese style counting is used.  The point for pass and white moves last rules ensure that the game result will be the same under both counting methods.

In a seki situation, Japanese rules don’t count points that are completely surrounded by a group that is alive in seki.  All other rule sets count such points.

Ing Chang-Ki, a wealthy Taiwanese businessman, invented a variation on the Chinese rules, and funded the Ing foundation to promote them worldwide.  The GOE rules follow the Chinese rules, except that each player must start the game with exactly 180 stones,  At the end of the game, all stones are filled into the territory on the board, and the winner is the player with empty points left over.  There is special go equipment to count the stones before the game.

Handicap stones: Most rules have fixed locations for handicap stones, and you can see them using Many Faces of Go and Japanese rules.  GOE rules allow free placement of handicap stones, and AGA rules allow free placement if both players agree.

Komi: GOE rules use 8 point komi.  All other rules currently use 5.5 points, although recently Korea has been experimenting with 6.5 point komi.

Suicide: GOE rules are the only ones that allow suicide, but only of groups with more than one stone.

Repetition:  Japanese rules forbid immediate recapture of a ko.  For any other repetition, if both players continue to repeat, the game is nullified, and played over.  AGA rules forbid a move that recreates a prior board position with the same player to move (called the superko rule).  GOE rules classify local repeating shapes into ‘fighting ko’, and ‘disturbing ko’, and forbid playing in a ‘disturbing ko’.  Details of the GOE ko rules are complex and poorly understood by most players.

In actual games, the only repeating positions likely to happen are simple kos, and all rules agree that immediate recapture of a ko is forbidden.

Passing:  Japanese rules only allow passing at the end of the game.  AGA rules require you to give a prisoner to your opponent when you pass.  AGA rules require white to make the last pass, so there may be 3 passes in a row to end the game.

End of Game group status disputes:  Japanese rules require you to record the current position, then play out each local fight with the condition that the only ko threat allowed is a pass.  After the result is determined through actual play, restore the recorded position, and score as usual.  All other rule sets allow you to play on, using the usual rules, until players agree, then score that position.

Illegal moves: (only enforced in tournaments).  In Japanese and Chinese rules, the player making the illegal move loses immediately.  In AGA rules, the illegal move is replaced by a pass.  In GOE rules, the position before the illegal move is restored without penalty.


History of go

The History of Go

Go was invented in China between 2,500 and 4,000 years ago.  Legend has it that the Emperor Yao invented it to instruct his son in the 23rd century BC.  Confucius mentions go in his writings in 479 BC, saying that even playing go is better than being idle.  The earliest surviving game record is from around 200 AD (on a 19 line board).  Go was popular and reached a high level of development in China in the 2nd through 5th centuries AD.  Go remained popular in China, but was not supported by the government.  During the Cultural Revolution, go was frowned upon and discouraged.  Recently, go has been recognized as a sport, and is supported by the government.  Since 1978, go playing in China has made a comeback, and the strongest Chinese players can challenge the strongest Japanese on an equal footing.

Go came to Japan from China around 700 AD with the Buddhist monks.  In Japan, go became popular with the samurai warriors, and when the Shogunate was formed in 1602, Go was supported by the government, with 4 competing hereditary go houses developing the game.  Strong go players were adopted into the 4 go families, and yearly competitions between the families were held before the Shogun.  The Honinbo family was the most prestigious, and generally had the best go players.  The last Honinbo gave the name Honinbo to the Japanese professional go association to be used as the title for a yearly tournament.  With the Meiji restoration in 1868, the government ceased to support the game, and professional go fell into a period of decline until the 1920’s, when the Japanese professional go association was founded and newspapers started to sponsor tournaments.

In this century, go is supported in Japan through tournaments sponsored by newspapers and major companies.  There are even go tournaments shown on TV.  Top players earn several hundred thousand dollars a year in prizes.  Most professionals earn their living teaching at go clubs, or writing go books.  There are about 400 professional players in Japan and two professional go associations, the Nihon Kiin and the Kansai Kiin.

Go came to the USA with the Japanese immigrants to San Francisco in the late 19th century.  The San Francisco Go club is over 100 years old.  The American Go Association was founded in 1937 in New York.  Go’s popularity in the USA grew quickly starting in the late 60’s, when Ishi Press started publishing English translations of Japanese Go books.  Richard Bozulich, the founder of Ishi Press, continues to translate and publish books for Kiseido.  In the 90’s, several other companies have started producing go books, with Yutopian translating many books from Chinese.  James Kerwin was the first professional go player in the USA, in the 70’s, but now there are enough go professionals living in the USA that in 1995 the first US professional go tournament was played, and in 1996, Jimmy Cha founded the US Professional Go Association.

In Europe, Go was played by Japanese immigrants in the 19th century.  German chess players Edward Lasker and Otto Korschelt started playing go around the turn of the century, after seeing a go column in a Japanese newspaper.  Korschelt published the first western book giving the rules and strategy of go in about 1900.


Professional Go Players

Go is played professionally worldwide.  There are professional go associations in Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, and the United States.  Here are the names of a few of the over 500 professional players.

American Professionals:

ZhuJiu Jiang (Jujo) Chinese 9 Dan.  Born 1962, 9 dan in 1987, one of the strongest players in China when he came to the USA.  Lives near San Francisco, CA

Rui Nai Wei, Chinese 9 Dan.  Jujo’s wife, born 1963.  Strongest woman player in the world.  Lives near San Francisco, CA.

Yilun Yang, Chinese 6 Dan.  Born 1952, became professional at age 14.  Has taught many of the strongest Chinese players.  Lives in Los Angeles, CA.

Jimmy (Minsoo) Cha, Korean 4 Dan.  Born 1951 in Korea.  Won All Korea Amateur Championship twice (71-72).  Professional 1 Dan in 1974.  Has beaten Japanese 9 Dans in international competition.  Lives in Los Angeles, CA.

James Kerwin, Japanese 1 Dan.  Born 1946.  First American to earn a professional rank.

Janice Kim, Korean 1 Dan.  Born 1969 in the USA.  Lives in New York, NY.

Japanese Professionals:

Nikkai, Honinbo Sansa: 1559-1623. Founder of the Japanese Honinbo house and Japanese professional go in the 16th century.

Honinbo Dosaku: 1645-1702.  By far the strongest player of his time, with many contributions to go theory.

Honinbo Shusaku:  Born 1829, died 1862.  Strongest player of the mid 19th century.

Honinbo Shusai:  Strongest player of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Go Seigen 9 Dan.  Born 1914. Chinese Go prodigy came to Japan when he was 14.  Strongest player of the mid 20th century.  With Kitani Minoru, invented the ‘New Openings’, characterized by fast development using the 4-4 points.

Kitani Minoro 9 dan.  Taught many of today’s top professionals, including Takemiya Masaki, Kobayashi Koichi, Cho Chikun, Kato Masao, Ishida Yoshio, Otake Hideo, and Kobayashi Satoru.

Sakata Eio 9 Dan.  Born 1920, became professional 1 Dan in 1935.  Dominated go tournaments in the 1960’s.  Has won more Japanese titles (64) than anyone else.

Takemiya Masaki 9 Dan.  Born 1951.  Pro 1 dan in 1965.  ‘Cosmic Go’ style characterized by large territorial frameworks.

Cho Chikun 9 Dan:  Korean go prodigy, born 1956.   Came to Japan to study go at the age of 7, became professional 1 Dan at the age of 13.   Dominant player in Japan in the early 1980’s and late 1990’s.  Only player to simultaneously hold the 3 top titles (Honinbo, Kisei, Meijin, in 1983 and 1997).  Likes to experiment with new ideas, even in important games.  Top prize money winner in 1996, with over $1,000,000.

Kobayashi Koichi 9 dan.  Born in 1952.  Became pro 1 dan in 1967.  Top player of late 80’s and early 90’s

Rin Kaiho (Lin Haifeng) 9 Dan.  Born in Taiwan in 1942, came to Japan in 1952 as protégé of Go Seigen, and became professional in 1956.  Has won many titles.

Michael Redmond 8 Dan.  Born in the USA in 1963.  Went to Japan to study to be a professional in 1977.  Became professional 1 dan in 1981.  Strongest western go player.

Chinese Professionals:

Nie Wei Ping 9 Dan.  Born 1952.  The first Chinese professional to beat Japanese 9 Dans.

Ma Xiaochun 9 Dan.  Born 1964.  Started playing go at 9 years old.  One of the strongest players in the world.

Korean Professionals:

Cho Hun Hyun 9 Dan.  Born 1953.  Studied to be a professional in Japan from 1963 to 1972, then returned to Korea.

Lee Chang Ho 9 Dan.  Born 1975.  Child prodigy taught by Cho.  Started beating Japanese 9 Dans when he was 14 years old.  Arguably the strongest player in the world today.

Biographies of most professional go players can be found on the web at:

http://www.cwi.nl/~jansteen/go/games/players/


The Go Rating System

Ranks in go run from 25 kyu for an absolute beginner, to 1 kyu, then 1 dan through 9 dan.  For amateurs each rank corresponds to a single handicap stone on a 19x19 board.  So, for example, if a 9 kyu played a 13 kyu,  the 13 kyu would start the game with 4 handicap stones on the board.  The top amateur players are ranked 7 dan.  Professionals have a separate system using just 1 dan through 9 dan ranks and advancement is gained through results in rating tournaments, where games are played without handicap.  A professional 1 dan is comparable in strength to an amateur 7 dan.

On the small 9x9 board used by this program, each handicap stone is worth about 4 ranks.


Commands

The program keeps track of your current strength and displays it on the menu bar.  Ranks run from 25 kyu for a beginner to 1 kyu, then 1 dan up to 6 dan, then professional.  When the computer wins a game you lose one rank.  If you kill all the computer’s stones, you gain 5 ranks.  If you have a big win, you gain two ranks, and other wins gain you one rank.

File Menu

•	New Game: Start a new game.  If you haven’t finished the current game, you are asked if you want to resign.  Click OK to resign this game.  You will lose one rank.

•	Save/Save as…: Save the current position.  Games are saved in the standard .sgf format used by most go programs.  You can not restore a game using this software.

•	Exit: Leave the program.  If you haven’t finished the game, you are resigning, and your rank will go down by one (unless you have only played a few moves).

View Menu

•	Toolbar: Show or hide the toolbar.  There are buttons on the toolbar for starting a new game, saving the position, making a pass move, and getting help.

•	Status bar: Show or hide the status bar.  This is the bar at the bottom that displays text to show what the program is doing.

•	Statistics: Show your progress against the program.  See how many games you played, your average rank, most common rank, and best rank.  The average rank does not include ranks with only one game played.  All statistics get reset when you reset the game to 25 kyu.

Game Menu

•	Pass: Make a pass move.  At the end of the game you will reach a point when there are no moves left that improve your score.  When this happens you should pass.  When both players pass, the game is over and the program shows the score.  If you disagree with the score, you can continue play.

•	Score: Show the score.  This command is only enabled after there have been two passes.  The program displays the score automatically when there are two passes.

•	Dispute score, continue play: If you don’t agree with the score shown by the computer, you can continue play.  The computer goes first, since you disputed, and play continues until there are two more passes in a row.  Sometimes the computer player will make a mistake about the life and death of a group at the end of the game, and you can use this command to correct it.

•	Reset to 25 kyu: Reset your strength to 25 kyu and clear the statistics.

Help Menu

•	Go Tutorial: Read through an interactive go tutorial.  This is an excellent way for a beginner to learn the rules and basic concepts.

•	Help Topics: Read the on-line manual.

•	About: See the identification and copyright notice.


The Many Faces of Go

This program is based on The Many Faces of Go, and uses its 3-D graphics.  But The Many Faces of Go is a stronger go player and is a full featured program.

Many Faces’ features include:

Set the board size to 9x9, 13x13, or 19x19

Give or take handicaps, up to 21 stones

Computer plays white black, both, or neither

On-line tutorial to learn the rules (the same one is included with this program)

Supports Japanese, Chinese, GOE, or American rule variations

Hundreds of introductory go problems to teach basic principles and strategies

You can create your own go problem sets

Optional instruction during play:

        Hints or suggested moves, by goal

        Show group strengths or liberty counts

        Explanations for its moves

        Territory or score estimates at any time

Strong go engine, 6 time US computer go champion, with 10 levels of play. (This program uses only the first 5 levels)

Over 1,000 professional games, hundreds commented

Complete game editor for recording games and commentary

       Include information about the game, who played, where, etc.

       Add commentary or marks on the board at each position

       Include variations

       Move stones, add or delete stones, to correct game entry errors

       Reads and writes both standard go game formats (.sgf and .go)

Opening library built from over 5,500 professional games

Create your own opening libraries

Joseki (corner pattern) tutor with over 45,000 moves

Print go diagrams

Play go on the internet with included shareware software

Modem support built in to play using a telephone

Over 40,000 game records from strong amateurs

Complete on-line manual

System requirements:

IBM PC or compatible, 386 or faster

Windows-95, Windows-98, or Windows-NT

256 color or higher graphics preferred

8 MB memory

12 MB disk space for typical installation

For more information, see http://www.netcom.com/~fotland/manyfaces.html

You can purchase The Many Faces of Go from one of the go vendors


Smart Games

This program and The Many Faces of Go were written by David Fotland, of Smart Games.  Smart Games develops artificial intelligence game opponents for strategy games, with the main focus on Go.  The Go engine is published in The Many Faces of Go, and all engines are available for license.  We also develop strategy AI’s under contract for other companies.  Current AI’s include Go, Chess, Othello, Bridge, and Domineering.

The Go engine has been licensed for many products, including

Go Simulator (Europe)

AI IGO (Japan, PC)

Honkaku Igo (Japan, Playstation)

The chess AI was written under contract and the product containing it is currently in stores.

For information on licensing an AI, having an AI developed, or becoming a distributor for The Many Faces of Go, contact:

David Fotland

Smart Games

4863 Capistrano Ave.

San Jose CA 95129

(408)985-1236

fotland@ix.netcom.com