I used drago before just to keep my kifus, but I’m - almost - thinking about buying SmartGo because this one guy keep advertising it all the time on my Facebook and… well let’s say he’s a persuasive guy.
So after I calm down, I think it’s best to as people’s opinion. Do you use any software to aid your go study? Or do you think books and a goban is enough?
I’m using the SGF collection function here to copy life-and-death problems.
Firefox counts as software, right?
I use Tsumego Pro and this app (the developer also has one for tesuji and one for joseki) on my Android device. I also use GridMaster + Google Drive (the sgf files are stored there) for reviewing games, usually on a board. If I am sitting at a computer, I will upload my sgf files to OGS and review on a demo board.
Other than that I generally just use books.
Wow that’s some cool app to have @crodgers, thanks!
I find OGS board only good for observing or reviewing games. It’s no good for studying because it lack variation annotation on the board. Let’s say if you’re checking out Kogo’s joseki dictionary. EidoGo shows variations on the board, but on OGS you have to go up and down the variations and get lost easily somewhere in the tree.
Also I don’t prefer an online solution to keep my study database because usually I only do review/study when I don’t have internet connection (you know, because of facebook and stuffs)
Another thing I’m wondering about is the database feature, I guess it shows percentage of pro choosing this answer vs that answer (idk if it’s actually practical for studying, but it feel pretty cool). I remember reading somewhere that it’s a Many Face of Go feature?
Oh btw I use Gobandroid on my devices but aside from a really nice UI and gogameguru’s tsumego update it doesn’t provide much.
I don’t study much but if I did I woud use Hactar Go. It can be used as kifu recorder, sgf viewer, tsumego viewer that allows you to add your own problems and in the future it will have amazing database searching abilities that will help alot when studying different fuseki patterns.
I also use ootakamoku.com for solving life & death problems only. I don’t do the fuseki thing.
I liked gochild very much but it’s not free and the user interface is weird.
Oh.
My.
God!
… This site so godlike. Thank you!
@Pempu: ootakamoku’s problems is somewhat limited, isn’t it? Similar problems with identical answer keep appearing over and over again…
I use goproblems.com for tsumego but then again, I think a tsumego book or collection would be better to keep track of. You don’t get the same problem again because of some silly algorithm.
Edit: a very very long time ago I accidentally tumbled upon a Japanese’s site (the author is Japanese but it’s in English). It’s a tsumego site with same concept as gogameguru nowaday (3 problems a week categoried easy, medium & hard). But it’s nearly 60-years-old with thousands of problems created personally by the author of the website himself - every week for 60 years. It’s awesome.
And the most awesome thing about this website is that - let’s say on week 1 we have to play as white to answer a black move at X, then the week after that he goes like: “So we already know that black X doesn’t work, so now choose a new move for Black instead of X”, and then the week after that we got “choose a new move for white instead of (the move before black X)”, a series like this usually last 3 or 4 weeks before we go to the next situation. And in each week, usually the easy problems will be a hint to answer the medium problem, and the medium problem is a hint to answer the hard problem. Each week’s tsumego feel more like a lesson rather than a question, it’s really beautiful.
I can’t find it again, lost the bookmark when my laptop got stolen. The only thing I remember is that the url contain the author name and a name of a very famous Japanese corporation (the author work there). If someone know or, better yet, got the link to this website I’d be extremely thankful.
I only do the tsumego part on ootakamoku.com and it works just fine with me.
You might mean Minoru Harada’s page. Check Go Problems on the Internet at Sensei's Library
You might mean Minoru Harada’s page. Check Go Problems on the Internet at Sensei's Library
Hm I’m not… really sure, the UI doesn’t look familiar but some of the problems do, so this might be it. Thank you 
Check out this demo board: 4-4 Joseki
I don’t know how the other go software implements it, but I find this fairly usable. Especially now that pushing the right arrow remembers the branch you are on.
It is, it’s just not good for checking out Kogo joseki, for example. Or examinizing popular fuseki. It is just my opinion though, some people may prefer OGS’s way 
First of all, I MUST share what I first read when I saw the thread title:
What software do you use to avoid studying [..]
Actually I only do Tsumego and sometimes Fuseki stuff
www.321go.org
www.ootakamoku.com
On the iPad, I mainly use SmartGo Kifu and EasyGo, on the olden iPhone I use SmartGo Pro
Regards, Tom
Hello there! I know this is a very old question, but maybe (probably) things changed since 2014. I was about to ask this exact same question, so I was not sure if I should start a new topic or bump the old one I found in the search.
Well, here it is… What softwares do you use as of today (Jan/2020)?
I run Linux in my laptop and I found a really nice software there. Its name is KIGO. Here a screenshot of a game I just played:
I enjoy very much this Kigo software and recommend if you use Linux.
I’m interested in what do you guys use. Specially for Android phones, since the one I installed is terrible, full of annoying sounds and mischievous graphics. For Android I installed this:
It is from a maker called “AI Factory Limited”. Not good at all, with ads and ugly interface. I uninstalled and now I’m looking for something else cleaner.
On the other hand, if you just want puzzles, this App is perfect:
It is called Tsumego Pro (Go Problems) by LR Studios. The link to the playstore for it is:
(as pointed out by @crocrobot ). Really nice app.
So, what is new?
Cheers,
Dr. Bèco
My method of studying is to take two go-playing AI of different strengths and pit them against each other. My goal is NOT to try and mimic the complexity of AI play. My goal is to try and train the pattern-detecting parts of my brain in the many strategies and priorities that Go embodies.
So, for the stronger AI I usually use the free desktop version of Leela, (download here: https://sjeng.org/leela.html) because
For my weaker AI I usually use COSUMI
https://www.cosumi.net/en/
Or this weaker online version of Leela (weaker because it uses fewer play-outs than the desktop version has at its disposal)
http://leela-one-playout.herokuapp.com/
So, the way I do it is, I’ll have two windows open on my computer running the two programs (i.e. desktop leela and a browser window with one of the browser-based AI). As each responds, I feed one’s moves into the other window so that both are the same.
In the desktop version of Leela, there’s no way to disable auto-respond, so what I will do is try not to look where it went, take it a move back, and turn off the heatmaps. I start with doing my own analysis of that position:
Once I’ve done my own analysis, I will force myself to pick 2 or 3 options for what I think the best move is. THEN I turn on the heatmaps, and see if I guessed correctly. If Leela suggests a completely different move, I then take the time to figure out why that particular strategy is smarter / more efficient than the moves I thought of.
If there are multiple moves on the heatmap, I then make the choice between them (or, if I’m really stumped, I force Leela to pick the next move) and keep playing.
I find this really useful because - one of the hardest things for me as a beginner was to start absorbing how a more advanced player sees the game. While I still have a long way to go in this regard, at least I have a consistent guide shining a light on those priorities, and the more I train myself to look for those things, the easier it becomes for me to recognize the correct strategy at each point, or at least be aware that there are multiple strategies available, and be able to chose between them in an informed manner.
When I just need a virtual board, I use software that I wrote:
Online editor: http://yewang.github.io/besogo/testing.html
Project page: http://yewang.github.io/besogo/
Source code: https://github.com/yewang/besogo
For AI analysis, I have heard good things about Lizzie, although I have not personally tried it:
On PC:
) with the full AI review which is awesome for conveniently and quickly checking out mistakes in not super serious gamesAndroid:
iOS
Hello guys,
I tried this app ElyGo Pro.
It is the same enterprise (LR Studios) that produces the one suggested earlier:
I installed it yesterday, really good. Really good indeed.
It comes with GNU-Go. As some of you might know, GNU is the free software foundation behind the whole environment that surrounds the Linux operating system’s kernel.
It is really strong. The first level of the App is much more strong than the AmyBot-Beginner available here.
Please check if ElyGo is available for iPhone as well. You might like it.
That is so cool, Yebellz! Congratulations. I looked at it and browsed a bit, really well designed.
I also use gitlab and github a lot. Every semester the students that comes to me are required to create an account, and I give tasks for them to write there, as an “organization”.
But I have my personal account as well, since I’m the author of Xadreco Chess Engine. I intend to start a project to write a Go engine, but just with the interest of teaching, not with the interest of it being strong and competitive.
If you guys want to play chess against Xadreco, it is online at lichess as Xadreco : Activity • lichess.org and the source is at GitHub - drbeco/xadreco: Xadreco Chess Engine
Cheers,
Dr. Bèco
That is an interesting approach to follow. How do you evaluate the results for your learning?
BTW, how strong are you now? I’m 25k yet, not sure if I can follow the ideas behind this method.
I miss a software interface that I can easily see what variants the computer is thinking in real time, check variations, or even play a new game from different start positions. That would be cool to help learning.
