On the page about playing against computer programs you are warned of the problem of trying to improve by playing Go against programs which you can beat. But a Go-playing program can be a useful teaching aid in other ways.
Some programs include joseki libraries, which you can use to step back and forth through a joseki, studying all the lines. This may be much easier than studying the same joseki in a book: You can concentrate on what you arelooking at, without simultaneously trying to remember which page of the book you are on.
Some Go-playing programs also attempt to analyse the life-and-death status of groups. This is less useful, because the results can be wrong.
Many Faces of Go includes a joseki tutor, a problem-solver, and a fuseki library.
Nemesis can be used to illustrate its author's idea of sector lines.
As well as showing sector lines Nemesis DeLuxe includes a joseki tutor and a life-and-death analyser.
Many of the game recording programs include collections of games for study. Some have many thousands of professional games, some with annotations or tools to help study opening paterns and the like. GoGoD, GoGAP and MasterGo are among the best.
Thomas Wolf's GoTools program does much more thorough status analysis than the Go-playing programs do. It does not give wrong answers; if it is given a sufficiently difficult problem, it thinks until it has completed its analysis. If you specifically want a program that does life-and-death analysis, you are recommended to buy this one, which gives correct answers, rather than a program that was designed primarily to play Go. It can also be used to generate problems.
GoTools is available from Thomas Wolf by post or by download.
Tsume Go Goliath is available from Schaak en Gowinkel het Paard. There is a review at http://www.britgo.org/reviews/golrev.html#tsume.
This is a single large SGF file, which you can download at Kogo's web site. It is incompatible with some SGF-reading software; the site lists the programs that can use it.
This is a full joseki dictionary extracted from Many Faces. It runs on a Palm Pilot with OS 2.0 or better.
It is available from Smart Games for purchase
or free evaluation. There is a review of it.
Szsoftware
Szsoftware has several items of Windows software, available in full and in restricted demo versions. You can download the demo versions from their web site, or you can pay for the full version of each program. This software is easy to install and use, but where there is commentary, it is in Chinese (GB encoded).
There is a joseki dictionary. It works like other joseki dictionaries, but alongside many of the moves there is a commentary, in Chinese. In the demo version, you are limited in how deep you can go into most of the variations, which makes it little use.
LifeAndDeath presents life and death problems. It has a total of over 1000 problems, in a range of grades from beginner up to 7-dan. You select a problem, and it displays it for you. When you have decided where to play, it plays a response; and you have to play out the whole solution before it credits you with solving it. It is good at refuting wrong moves. If you give up on a problem, you can ask it to show you the solution. Although it is Chinese, it regards "bent four" as unconditionally dead.
In the demo version, you can still see all the problems, but you can only play through the 728 of them that are graded from beginner up to 3-dan. You can still see the 300 more difficult problems, but it won't show you the solutions or refute your incorrect attempts. I definitely recommend this program. The problems are well presented, and ignorance of the Chinese language is no handicap to appreciating it.
They also have Attack and defense, Hamate and overplay and Skill of endgame.
Famous Games presents professional games. You can step through a game, and read an extensive commentary, in Chinese. There are also side diagrams, showing variations. The demo version lists 30 games, but only allows you to play through one of them. There are two full volumes that you can buy, presumed with 30 games in each.
From China there are two programs Tesuji Made Easy and Fuseki Made Easy. The first contains more than 2400 problems, including classics, split by category. The second studies 16 common fuseki (opening) styles, discussed in professional games. They are available from Schaak en Gowinkel het Paard and Yutopian.
GoInfo was an indexed collection of professional Go games on CD, compiled by Alex Telitsin. It included a number of search tools, allowed you to play through games and you could add to the database. It no longer is available.
Nadare was a program that related josekis to professional games, starting with the nadare (avalanche) joseki, with its hundreds of lines. It is no longer available.
This page is part of the British Go Association website.
It is part of a list of the ways in which you can use a computer in connection with Go.
Last updated: 2006-09-28.
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