Are any bots accepting challenges?

It used to be possible to play kata-go on a whim, and there was a one playout Version that you could challenge as well. It was handy if you wanted to play a game against a strong opponent but might take a few hours as you played it in the background doing something else. Now there seem to be none. Is there any I could use for this?

currently in list
JBXKataBot2
katago-micro

Ah I see, I can just search for katago in username and then see which bots accepting challenges. Sounds like a plan! Thanks!

plan is

  1. https://online-go.com/play
  2. click “computer”
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:man_facepalming:Never saw it!

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The bots are hosted by individuals rather than the centrally by the site I believe. I think the individuals also have control over what settings their bots accept.

I don’t know exactly how to find out which bot accepts what unless it’s on their profile page.

Apparently from this thread some bots would give a more detailed message as to what settings they accept. Some were updated to include such a message after some prompts I think.

But there is a computer option on the play page which should show the list of bots to choose from that are online I believe.

Yep this :slight_smile:

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Yes, and yes. And feel free to send them a thank you if you enjoy their bot, they are basically donating hardware and pay for electricity, but don’t get much appreciation :slight_smile:

It is very probably the best option for most cases, but for the sake of accuracy, bot administrators can also chose NOT to have their bot listed for whatever reason - usually when they don’t want high traffic and save the bot for special “high-value” occasions… So if you are looking for something very particular, the search might sometimes help.

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Due to a little bit of a mishap, kata-bot went down one day, and rather than directly putting it back up I took it as an excuse to downsize a little, because running a bot 24/7 on good hardware can be very expensive, and yes because there are often other KataGo-based bots in the bots list in the play menu, as well as a few not in the menu that you can challenge directly if you know, so there was some redundancy.

So I replaced it with katago-micro, which due to using a tiny search can reasonably run on a much cheaper GPU, and nobody else was running a low-playouts bot.

If you liked to play kata-bot before, in whatever situation (13x13, handicap, reverse komi, etc), this can be the new go-to bot which still handles all those situations, although it might be a stone weaker due to the drastically lighter hardware and search limits. Still should be top-pro-level if not superhuman, and play really fast.

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Thanks, I have only just seen this and yes: had found katago micro and loved it. Perfect speed when I have one eye on the kids and little time, and feel like I am learning by being crushed :slight_smile: Thank you!!!

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I think its impossible to learn by being completely crushed. Some handicap stones or reverse komi is needed until you have chance to win. Its interesting to know how much exactly it stronger than you.