From: adrian@u.washington.edu (Adrian Mariano)
Subject: The Game Go -- Frequently Asked Questions
X-Last-Updated: 1992/09/05
Followup-To: rec.games.go
Supersedes: <go-faq_714459618@athena.mit.edu>
Organization: Massachvsetts Institvte of Technology
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 05:00:32 GMT
Expires: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 05:00:15 GMT

Archive-name: go-faq

                             rec.games.go 
                      Frequently Asked Questions 

  			   by Adrian Mariano
 		        adrian@u.washington.edu


This FAQ is available on the archive site:  ftp.u.washington.edu 
                                                  (128.95.136.1)

You can log into the archive site with the username 'ftp' and any
password using the 'ftp' command.  The files are in various
subdirectories under public/go.  The file public/go/README (posted
monthly to rec.games.go on the first of each month) contains a
description of all files.  Filenames which appear below are relative
to public/go.

If you don't have ftp, send a message to ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com
containing the single line "help" to get information about ftping by
mail.  If you absolutely cannot get the mail server to work, send an
email request to adrian@u.washington.edu and I will mail you the
files.


Questions, comments, and corrections should be sent to 
adrian@u.washington.edu.                                          


0. Table of Contents
1. What is go? 
2. What are the differences between different rules?
3. How does the ranking system work?
4. What public domain programs can I get to play go? 
5. What commercial programs can I get to play go? 
6. How strong are the commercial programs?  
7. What computer go tournaments exist?  What are the prizes? 
8. What are the different game record formats and how can I display them? 
9. What programs can I get to display go game records? 
10. How do I play games by computer? 
11. Where can I get go equipment, books, etc? 
12. What books should I read? 



1. What is go? 

Go is a two player strategy board game.  Players take turns putting 
black and white pieces (called stones) on a board.  Stones are placed 
on the intersection of the lines on the board, and can be placed on 
the edge or in the corner.  Once played a stone can not be moved, but 
may be captured by the other player.  A player can pass at any time.  
Go is generally played on a 19 by 19 board, but smaller boards such as 
9 by 9 or 13 by 13 are used by beginners.  

The object of the game is to surround territory and/or your opponent's 
stones.  The game ends when both players pass.  Under Japanese rules, 
each intersection surrounded and each prisoner counts as a point.  The 
player with the most points wins. 

An empty intersection adjacent to a stone (orthogonally) is called a 
liberty.  For example, a single stone in the middle of the board has 4 
liberties.  Stones that are adjacent form groups.  Every group must 
have at least one liberty.  When a group's last liberty is filled it 
is captured and removed from the board. 

It is illegal to make a move which recreates a preceding board 
position (to prevent loops).  The simplest repeating position is 
called a ko. 

A brief introduction to the game in Smart-Go format is available on
the archive site as RULES.SG.  Beginners can also get comp/igo.zip
from the archive site.  This is a stripped down version of Many Faces
of Go for the IBM PC which includes play on the 9 by 9 board and some
instructional material.



2. What are the differences between different rules?

Under Chinese rules, handicap stones are given as free moves whereas 
with Japanese rules they are placed on the star points.

Under Japanese rules, score is calculated by counting points of
territory and subtracting the number of captured stones.  Points in
seki are not counted.  With the Chinese rules, the score is calculated
by counting both points of territory and the number of stones left on
the board.  The number of captured stones is not counted.  Points
surrounded in seki are counted as territory and points shared in seki
are counted as 1/2 point for each player.  Because the sum of the
scores is always 361, only one color needs to be counted.



3. How does the ranking system work?

The ranks are "kyu" and "dan".  Kyu means pupil and dan means master,
but there is no qualitative difference.  The ranks are like positive
and negative numbers (with no zero).  A beginner starts out with a
high kyu rank (20-30 kyu) and advances to the strongest kyu rank of 1
kyu.  The next rank above 1 kyu is 1 dan (shodan), and the dan ranks
proceed upward to 7 dan.  On the 19x19 board, the number of handicap
stones is the difference between the ranks.  A 3 kyu gives seven
stones to a 10 kyu.  A 2 dan gives 2 stones to a 1 kyu.  The
professional go players have a separate dan scale which goes from 1
dan to 9 dan.  The professional scale has finer gradations than the
amateur scale: the difference between 9 dan and 1 dan is about 2
stones.

You can determine your strength only by playing aginast others with
known strength.  There are books like "Test Your Rating", but those
tests are very unreliable.

On a 13x13 board, if the rank difference is "diff", then the following
table gives the handicap and komi:

diff   Handicap  Komi     diff   Handicap  Komi     diff   Handicap  Komi
  0        0      8.5       7        3      5.5      14        5      2.5
  1        0      5.5	    8        3      2.5      15        5     -0.5
  2        0      2.5	    9        3     -0.5      16        6      5.5
  3        0     -0.5	   10        4      5.5      17        6      2.5
  4        2      5.5	   11        4      2.5      18        6     -0.5
  5        2      2.5	   12        4     -0.5      19        6     -3.5
  6        2     -0.5	   13        5      5.5      20        6     -6.5



4. What public domain programs can I get to play go? 

Very few public domain programs exist.  Those that do are extremely
weak. On the archive site, you will find comp/wally.c, which can be
compiled anywhere.  You can use xgoban to provide an X11 interface to
wally.  If you think wally.c is too strong, you can get the even
weaker gnugo from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu/gnugo-1.1.tar.Z.  If you
have X11, you can get xgoban from the archive site
(prog/xgoban-1.0.sh.Z) to act as a graphical interface to either wally
or gnugo.  Macintosh uses can try MacGo or Dragon Go (available on the
archive site).  Amigo users can get Amigo (comp/amigo.lzh on the
archive site).  Amigo has been ported to X11 (comp/xamigo.sh.Z).  If
you have access to an HP9000 either 680x0 based or HP-PA risc based,
you can get Many Faces of Go for X11 from ftp.uu.net in
games/hp-xgo.shar.Z.



5. What commercial programs can I get to play go? 

The information in this section may be somewhat out of date. Prices or
version numbers may be wrong.

     The Many Faces of Go, $59.95 (add $2.25 for shipping; in CA add 
sales tax) 
     ISBN 0-923891-28-5 
     (Version for MSDOS) 
          Ishi Press International   Ishi Press International
          76 Bonaventura Drive 	     20 Bruges Place         
          San Jose, CA  95134 	     London England NW1 OTE  
          Tel: (408)944-9900 	                             
          FAX: (408)944-9110 	     071 284 4898            

     Star of Poland, Version 3.1, $110 
          OPENetwork 
          215 Berkeley Pl. 
          Brooklyn, NY 11217 
          (718) 638-2266 

Nemesis Version 3 was available for $79 (also $49 for Joseki Tutor and 
$59 for Tactical Wizard -- tsume go analyzer).  Current Nemesis is 
version 5.  Toyogo is now located in Hawaii.  Call 1-800 TOYOGO9 for 
details. 
     (versions for Macintosh, PC, and NEC 9801, add $6 for shipping) 

Go Intellect 1990 Computer Olympiad 1st place; 1990 International 
Computer Go Congress world championship tied for 1st/2nd place. Go 
Intellect version 2.98 can be ordered directly from the author.  An 
reduced cost upgrade from 2.0 to 2.98 is also available (Version for 
macintosh) 
          Dr. Ken Chen 
          4407 Oak Lane 
          Charlotte, NC 28213 

Go Explorer runs on top of Smart Go and is available from Anders 
Kierulf. (For macintosh) 
          Anders Kierulf 
          Smart Game Board 
          P.O. Box 7751 
          Menlo Park, CA  94026-7751 

The following is taken from an ad in _Go_World, issue 53, Autumn 88: 
     Goliath 2, Dfl 99.- (Add 10% for surface, 20% for air shipment) 
     Intl. M.O. or cheque or remit to the following account: 
          N.M.B. Bank Amsterdam 69.17.05.070 
     (Version for Atari ST, monochrome, and MSDOS) 
          Divo Publishing 
          M. Gijzenburg 14 
          2907 HG Capelle a/d IJssel 
          The Netherlands 

Many Faces of Go, Nemesis, and Contender (Mac) are available from Ishi 
Press. 
     Ishi Press International   Ishi Press International
     76 Bonaventura Drive 	20 Bruges Place         
     San Jose, CA  95134 	London England NW1 OTE  
     Tel: (408)944-9900 	                        
     FAX: (408)944-9110 	071 284 4898            



6. How strong are the commercial programs?  

It's difficult to rank the programs because they are all very 
inconsistent in their play.  They may play a sequence of moves that 
look dan level, or solve a dan level problem during play, but then a 
few moves later they will make a move that a 20 kyu would never make.  
Since none of the current programs can learn from their own mistakes, 
when the same situation comes up they will make the same bad move 
again. 

The top program in the world (Goliath) claims to be around 8 or 10 
Kyu. Many Faces of Go and Nemesis claim to be 13 Kyu.  Poka claims to 
be about 17 Kyu, and Dragon Go is about 17 kyu as well.  These claims 
are generally based on games that are the first game the human has 
played against a computer.  Nemesis has played in AGA rated 
tournaments for its rating. 

David Fotland (Author of Many Faces of Go) says, "I know someone who 
was having trouble beating Many Faces at 13 stones until I suggested 
he could beat it at 29 stones.  He spent a few weeks trying odd moves 
and found some weaknesses, and now he has no trouble beating it at 29 
stones. Each of the programs has different weaknesses, but they all 
tend to collapse tactically in a complicated position, so if attach 
and crosscut a lot you can usually win big." 

Results of 1991 North American Computer Go Tournament 

1st: Many Faces of Go, By David Fotland 2nd: Go Intellect, by Ken Chen 
3rd: Stone, by Kao 4th: Contender, by Lynn Beus and Jim Logan 5th: 
Nemesis, by Bruce Wilcox 6th: Swiss Explorer, by Martin Mueller and 
Anders Kierulf 

Swiss Explorer forfeited two games, to Many faces and Nemesis, because 
it was late and missed two rounds.  Swiss explorer lost to Contender 
due to an unrecoverable crash, but Contender was ahead at the time.  
Nemesis lost two games, to Contender and Stone, due to unrecoverable 
crashes. The game between Many Faces and Go Intellect was exciting - 
both programs killed large enemy groups, and the score swung over 100 
points each way in the middle game, then the programs left a very 
large ko on the board until the last dame was filled.  Many Faces beat 
Stone by about 20 points and Nemesis and Contender by about 140 points 
each. 


Results from the 1991 World computer Go Congress:

Main Computer Tournament:

Place   Program		Author		Country
   Wins
 1  6	Goliath		Mark Boon	Netherlands
 2  5	Go Intellect 	Ken Chen	USA   (lost to Goliath)
 3  4	Dragon		Tung-Yueh Liu	Taiwan
 4  4	Weiki III	Sanechika	Japan
 5  4	Star of Poland 	Kraszek		Poland
 6  3	Handtalk	ZhiXing Cheng	China
 7  3	Stone		Kuo-Yuan Kao	Taiwan
 8  3 	Modgo		Knoepfle	Germany
 9  3	Mac		Won-Ho Jee	Korea
10  3	Many Faces 	David Fotland	USA
11  2	Nemesis		Bruce Wilcox	USA
12  2	Hirartsuka	Shigyou		Japan
13  1	Explorer	Martin Muller	Switzerland
14  1	Daihoninbo	Yoshikawa	Japan  (Win was due to a bye)
15  0	Go		Yuzhi Yang	China  (crashed every round)

"Best Design" prize for the program with the overall best combination
of ease of use, features, look, and playing strength, went to Many
Faces of Go.

Goliath went on to challange the 3 human players (young 5 dans), at a
16 play handicap and won all 3 games.  It challenged at the next level
(14 play handicap), and lost all three games.  Next year the human
challenge will be at a 14 play handicap.



7. What computer go tournaments exist?  What are the prizes? 

There is a North American Championship every year at the Go Congress 
the first week of August.  Plaques and the title of North American 
Computer Go Champion are the prizes.  There is a similar competition 
at the European Go Congress.  There is a Computer Games Olympiad every 
year in London in the summer that includes Computer Go.  The Usenix 
conference used have a computer go competition every year, and may 
still - no prizes. 

The big money is in the World Computer Go Congress, sponsored by Ing
Chang Chi and Acer in Taiwan.  They have a preliminary competition
every August (formerly held in Europe, USA, and Japan, but now held in
Taipei with programs that are mailed in by their authors).  If you do
well in the preliminary (defined as beating two of 3 benchmark
programs - this year the benchmarks were Stone, Friday, and Goliath)
you will be reimbursed for 1/2 of your air fare to the Congress.  The
congress is held on November 11 and 12 in various places.  In 1990 it
was in Beijing.  In 1991 it was in in Singapore.  First prize for the
best computer program is about $8,000. Second is about $1,000 and 3rd
is about $500.  The winning computer program plays a 3 game series
against the Taiwan youth champion (usually a 12 year old 5 Dan) and
gets another $8000 if it wins.  This prize went unclaimed for five
years, but in 1991 Goliath beat all three human challengers, so the
handicap has been decreased to 14 moves.  The top prize if for winning
a 7 game series against a professional (of unspecified rank) is about
$1.6 Million.  The contest only runs through the year 2000 so the top
prize will go unclaimed.



8. What are the different game record formats and how can I display them? 

There are several different formats for game records.  The two most 
popular formats are Smart-Go and Ishi "Standard" Format.  Definitions 
for these two formats are on the archive site in prog/mgt22.sh.Z and 
prog/standard.sh.Z respectively. 

The Smart-Go format can be read by mgt, Pon Nuki, xgoban and the Smart
Go program.  Ishi Format can be read by Many Faces of Go, Goscribe,
Goview, Contender, Smart Go Board (version 4.0 or later), and Nemesis
(version 5 and above). Ishi publishes games regularly in Ishi format.

The Liberty format is a binary format which is not common.  Many of 
the files on the archive site are presently in this format.  They can 
be converted to other formats with prog/convert.tar.Z. 



9. What programs can I get to display go game records? 

The program mgt will display game records under Unix or MSDOS.  It 
does not use graphics, however.  An X11 version of mgt is under 
development, but has not been released yet.  The mgt program was 
created originally by Greg Hale at the request of rec.games.go readers 
who wanted an interactive program that would read a series of tutorial 
files posted to the net.  The program was expanded by Adrian Mariano 
to edit and save game records. The purpose of mgt is to display and 
edit game records in Smart-Go format.  It can be used to display a 
game board.  Pieces can be placed and removed, and games can be 
scored. 

The program xgoban by Antoine Dumesnil de Maricourt (dumesnil@etca.fr)
can display and edit Smart-Go under X11.  It can also communicate with
wally to provide a graphical interface to this program.

The program Pon Nuki for the Mac is being developed by Greg Anderson 
(greggor@apple.com).  He is willing to send individuals beta test 
copies.  Pon Nuki can display either Ishi or Smart-Go format. 

Many Faces of Go can display only Ishi format.  

The Smart-Go program itself is available for the Mac.  Also, Goscribe 
for MSDOS is available through Ishi press (address above) for $59.95.  
It can display and edit Ishi format.  Goview, able to display but not 
edit, is available for MSDOS for $20.  Goview is free with a 
subscription to Go World on disk. 

     Smart Go Board, version 4.0.2, $40 
     (version for Macintosh) 
          Anders Kierulf 
          Smart Game Board 
          P.O. Box 7751 
          Menlo Park, CA  94026-7751 



10. How do I play games by computer? 

Since computers make poor opponents, we use them to connect us to 
other humans.  There are two types of computer games:  email, and 
interactive.  Email games can be handled manually, by creating a board 
in an editor, or only exchanging move coordinates.  The other option 
is the use the unix program 'mailgo' which is included with mgt.  It 
sends Smart-Go records of your game back and forth, and invokes mgt 
for moves.  

There are several ways to play interactive games.  Probably the most
popular is the Internet Go Server (IGS).  You can connect to the
server and look for opponents to play, or just watch a game.  To
connect directly, type "telnet icsib18.icsi.berkeley.edu 6969" on a
unix machine.  The IP number is 128.32.201.46.  A brief, outdated
introduction to the go server is available for ftp on
unmvax.cs.unm.edu in pub/go.  The internet go server is also run on
cnam.cnam.fr, but this sites do not appear to be used much.  When you
connect to the IGS, be SURE to use the port number 6969.

The IGS interface is quite awkward, so five client programs are
available to ease your interaction with the server.  They are
prog/igc050.sh.Z, an ascii client for unix, prog/xigs_v1.0.sh.Z and
prog/xgospel.sh.Z, X11 clients for unix, prog/gs039.sit.hqx, a
Macintosh client, and prog/pcig39z.exe, an IBM PC client.  All four
programs are available on ftp.u.washington.edu.

Another interactive options is the internet go program, available on
the archive site as prog/inetgo72.sh.Z, which allows BSD Unix users to
play interactive games with ascii text screens.  The xgosh program
(prog/xgosh17.sh.Z on the archive site) allows people with X-Windows
to play interactive games with a graphical board.  The two interactive
programs are NOT compatible.

To help find suitable opponents, check out the go players email
address list, available on the archive site as go-players, and also
posted monthly with this FAQ.

There is a standard go modem protocol which is used by go programs for
modem play.  It is implemented in Many Faces of Go, Nemesis, and
Telego (a shareware go modem program for the IBM PC).  The protocol
spec and sample code are available from the archive site as
info/protocol.Z.

Fotland's program, Many Faces of Go for X Windows on HP machines
supports two players on two screens.



11. Where can I get go equipment, books, etc? 

     Ishi Press International    Ishi Press International
     76 Bonaventura Drive 	 20 Bruges Place         
     San Jose, CA  95134 	 London England NW1 OTE  
     Tel: (408)944-9900		                         
     FAX: (408)944-9110 	 071 284 4898            



12. What books should I read? 

A list of books is on the archive site:  info/books.Z