Go Information

Topic Editor: Martin Müller

Contributions are welcome and the ICGA will, with permission, list contributor's names and email addresses on its Contributor's page.

Introduction

The game of Go is also known in Japanese as igo, in Chinese as wei qi or wei chi, in Korean as baduk.

Go is the last of the classical board games in which computers are still relatively weak. Despite a lot of effort, the current top programs can still be beaten easily by humans of intermediate level. The situation looks much better for more specialized topics, such as solving Life and Death problems in enclosed area, where programs have reached a strong level.

Rules of the Game

The basic rules of Go are simple and elegant. The game contains many intriguing complexities, but those can be derived from the basic rules. Two well-regarded introductory Go pages are:

Many different rule sets for Go exist, but the differences are very small in practice. The outcome of a game is only very rarely affected by the specific type of rules that are in place. Some rules links:

Examples

Games

  • gobase.org has lots of games played by professional players.

Curiosities and Studies

Past Achievements

Solutions for Small Boards

Life and Death

Capturing Races

Endgame

to do.

Events

Future Challenges

  • Go applet for replaying games on the site

  • Add newer game records

  • Add more links to programmers

  • Add more historical information

  • The unique challenges of programming Go compared to other games

  • Add information about endgames

  • Machine learning in computer Go

Relevant Associations

Game Associations

Computer Game Associations

  • Computer Go Forum CGF is a large group based in Japan.

  • The Intelligent Go Foundation, a sponsor of computer Go events, provides information about their activities and about Computer Go in general: a detailed overview of computer Go, and an online computer Go database.

Services and Sources of Information

Mailing List

Game-playing Servers

All these servers are mainly for human players. However, several programs, such as GnuGo, Many Faces of Go and Go 4++ are playing or have played on some of the servers.

Key People and Programs

Programs and their Programmers

List incomplete, roughly ordered by estimated strength.

Research and Theory

  • Elwyn Berlekamp Mathematical Go, combinatorial game theory, ko, thermography.

  • Ken Chen Go Intellect, combinatorial game algorithms

  • Tristan Cazenave Abstract Proof Search, Generalized Threats Search, automatic pattern generation, metaprograms.

  • Markus Enzenberger Neural networks for Go, Online Computer Go Bibliography

  • Bill Fraser (no web page?) Mathematical Go, combinatorial game theory, ko, thermography, GoSolver, bruteforce.

  • Martin Müller Combinatorial game algorithms, endgames, semeai, safety of territory

  • Bill Spight Mathematical Go, combinatorial game theory, ko, thermography.

  • Thomas Wolf Life and Death solver

References

Journals and Magazines

Scientific journals that have published Go research papers in recent years.

Books and Papers

Web Sources

Online Go Programs

General Information

Game Records

Tournament Results