GNU Go plays a game of Go against the user. It has many other features: it can play against itself or
another program, analyse and score a recorded game. GNU Go is compliant with Go modem protocol, load and
save game in the Smart Game format.
GNU Go default is a simple alpha-numeric board display, but you can use a client such as CGoban.
ThegameofGo
Go is a game of strategy between two players usually played on a 19x19 grid called goban. The two players
put black and white stones on the goban to enclose territory. Go was invented about 4000 years ago in
ancient China. Other names for this game are (Chinese) WeiChi, (Korean) Baduk and (Ing) Goe.
PlayingagameinASCIImode
To start a game with default options, just invoke "gnugo". The board will be drawn at your terminal using
ASCII letters. In this mode, you can get help on available commands by the h key. To play as Black with
4 stones handicap, with a 0.5 komi, recording the game in the file record.sgf:
gnugo --color black --handicap 4 --komi 0.5 -o record.sgf
PlayingagamewithCGoban
CGoban is a general purpose client program by Bill Shubert for playing Go. It runs under X Window System
with a beautiful resizeable graphic display. To use GNU Go under X Window System, obtain the most recent
version of CGoban from Bill Shubert's web site
http://www.igoweb.org/~wms/comp/cgoban/index.html
Start CGoban. When the CGoban Control panel comes up, select `Go Modem.' You will get the Go Modem
Protocol Setup. Choose one (or both) of the players to be ``Program,'' and fill out the box to the path
to gnugo. After clicking OK, you get the Game Setup window. Choose ``Rules Set'' to be Japanese
(otherwise handicaps won't work). Set the board size and handicap if you want. Click OK and you are ready
to go.
In the Go Modem Protocol Setup window, when you specify the path to GNU Go, you can give it command line
options, such as --quiet to suppress most messages. Since the Go Modem Protocol preempts standard I/O,
other messages are sent to stderr, even if they are not error messages. These will appear in the terminal
from which you started CGoban.
Scoringsystem
The game stops when both players pass. GNU Go will attempt to compute and report the score to you. It may
occasionally make mistakes due to wrong evaluation of the status of a group. You can check the score as
follows. In ASCII mode, at the end of the game, stones believed dead are marked in lower case letters,
and you have the option of toggling their status before counting. Using CGoban, you may use CGoban's
counting facility to count the game using either Japanese or Chinese rules.
Viewingastoredgame
gnugo -l filename.sgf --mode ascii
loads filename.sgf and lets you navigate through the game by using the commands forward, back, goto and
last. It is not possible to navigate through variations in ascii mode. You may also use CGoban to view
stored games. CGoban can navigate variations.
Documentation
The files in the doc directory contain detailed documentation about debugging options and internal
program structure. Other documentation may be found in comments throughout the source code.
GoModemProtocol
The Go Modem Protocol is a standard interface between Go programs and graphical display.
The Go Modem Protocol was developed by Bruce Wilcox with input from David Fotland, Anders Kierulf and
others. Any Go program *should* use this protocol since it is standard. Since CGoban supports this
protocol, the user interface for any Go program can be done entirely through CGoban. Using the Go Modem
Protocol, you can play with another computer running a different program (even on a different operating
system) using a modem, a serial cable or over the internet if the other program also supports the
protocol. You can also communicate with the Go servers using CGoban.
SmartGameFormat
Games (with comments, variations and other features) can be stored in the Smart Game Format (SGF). This
format originated in Anders Kierulf's program Smart Go. Martin Muller and Arno Hollosi developed the
current standard, which may be found at
http://www.red-bean.com/sgf/
GNU Go supports the Smart Game Format.
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