What software do you use to aid studying (or do you use software at all?)

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.

Check this site out.

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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

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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 :smile:

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 :smile:

First of all, I MUST share what I first read when I saw the thread title:

What software do you use to avoid studying [..] 

:joy:

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

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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

  • it’s free
  • it’s easy to use out of the box
  • it has incredibly useful heatmaps that show the range of possible “good” moves in situations where more than one move is available

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:

  • who has sente/gote?
  • which are the weakest groups - which are the strongest groups?
  • is there a crucial/necessary move to make in the current fight, or is it better to tenuki?
  • is it time for a cautious/solid move? is it time for a big move?

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.

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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:

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On PC:

  • OGS (obviously :wink: ) with the full AI review which is awesome for conveniently and quickly checking out mistakes in not super serious games
  • Lizzie is an absolute must have - now pre-packed with KataGo as well. For in-depth reviews
  • Sabaki for viewing .sgf as I find it aesthetically pleasing
  • Drago for setting up more complicated .sgf like tsumegos as I find all the functionality easily accessible though it is not so pretty

Android:

  • Crazy Stone for bot play when in transit or something
  • BW joseki for joseki, but it is getting a bit outdated unfortunately
  • Tsumego pro for tsumego
  • and Go Dojo for observing pro games and guessing the next move fun

iOS

  • never had, but the GoBooks app sounds absolutely wonderful
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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

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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.

Lizzie, the interface to our AI overlords. It supports LeelaZero one KataGo.

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Some of those results are quantitative - I ranked up. I’m a slow learner - largely because I mostly play correspondence games. I like playing live games in person, with a board and stones, but on a computer I’ve just never gotten into live or blitz games. The couple of times I’ve tried it, I haven’t done very well. I enjoy correspondence games because I can really take the time to read out options and make a move I feel good about. However, the downside is that my correspondence games usually take weeks or months, and learning comes slowly.

For a long time, I was playing with a friend of mine online, and we both stumbled around from ~20kyu to ~ 17kyu. However, I noticed that my skills were kind of plateau-ing. I wasn’t really learning much, I was making the same mistakes and trying the same strategies. I stumbled onto another player who was stronger than me, and found that I learned a lot more from playing them.

Once I stumbled onto the learning-from-AI technique, I stopped playing other people for over a year, and when I came back, I noticed myself playing better, and I was able to win against stronger opponents. Here’s an older game of mine from when I was 17 or 18 kyu

Here’s a game after I took that year long break to learn stuff:

For me, the main differences between then and now are qualitative. In the past, I constantly felt lost, and didn’t know what to do next. Now that I have gotten better at analyzing the board, the game has taken on more of a narrative and I know where I am in the story. Now, granted, I still get in trouble because there are so many options for what to do at each point in that narrative, and I need to get better at picking the best strategy at each point.

My problem is I discover a couple of new strategies - in my case using cut points to create forcing moves, and using light play to move quickly across the board. Those are great, but I also need to slow down and balance those with some solid connecting moves that create shape.

But - at least now I can understand WHY and how I’m making those mistakes. I look back on my old games, and I find myself cringing realizing that I was making moves where I had no idea what I was doing, and I was handing my opponent an advantage making moves that I thought “looked cool,” or failing to secure my territory and having big groups captured because I couldn’t pay attention to who had sente/gote.

Last year, I played a series of unranked teaching games with my friend soterios. We played something called Centaur Go - where we were both using AI training wheels, and most of the learning involved looking at the AI suggested moves, discussing which strategy each represented, and then having him pick one and play through the consequences.

Once the game was finished, I wrote up a move-by-move analysis of the game which you are welcome to read here. It’s long and dense, but it will give you a sense of the type of analysis involved. If you want to follow along, restart the game from the beginning in analyze mode, go to the top of the comments text, and then increment the moves with the text.

After I came back and played a few games, I ranked all the way up to 13 kyu. Then I lost a few games trying out new stuff/experimenting with new styles, and I’m back to 15 kyu. Just gotta get my nose to the grindstone and apply the stuff I’ve learned better, and maybe I’ll rank back up.

The Leela software I recommended does all that - and there’s an Ubuntu version

cheers
tonyb

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Worth mentioning,

This site has a link called “other resources” that gives a LOT of nice tips.

There is a section with software recommendation:

Link:

Cheers,

Dr. Bèco

I still use ps.waltheri and old tesuji books…

I’ve started using Ah Q Go on the bus for learning new opening stuff. It’s been quite nice. I feel stronger, but conflicted.

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