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.::gnugo(6)	       User Contributed Perl Documentation	     .::gnugo(6)

NAME
     gnugo - The GNU program to play the game of Go

SYNOPSIS
     gnugo  [--boardsize  <num>]  [--color  <color>]  [--handicap <num>] [--komi
     <num>] [--quiet] [-v, --version] [-h, --help] [--help debug]  [--copyright]
     [--mode  <mode>]  [--replay <color>] [-l, --infile <filename>] [-L, --until
     <move>] [-o, --outfile <filename>]  [--printsgf  <filename>]  [-D,  --depth
     <num>]  [-B, --backfill_depth <num>] [--score [estimate|finish|aftermath] ]
     [-a, --allpats] [-T, --printboard] [-d, --debug <level>] [-w, --worms] [-m,
     --moyo <level>] [-b, --benchmark num] [-t, --trace] [-r, --seed num]

DESCRIPTION
     GNU Go plays a game of Go against the user. It has many other features:  it
     can  play	against  itself or another program, analyse and score a recorded
     game. GNU Go is compliant with Go modem protocol, load and save game in the
     Smart Game format.

     GNU Go default is a simple alpha-numeric board display, but you can  use  a
     client such as CGoban.

     The game of Go

     Go is a game of strategy between two players usually played on a 19x19 grid
     called  goban.  The  two players put black and white stones on the goban to
     enclose territory. Go was invented about 4000 years ago in  ancient  China.
     Other  names  for this game are (Chinese) Wei Chi, (Korean) Baduk and (Ing)
     Goe.

     Playing a game in ASCII mode

     To start a game with default options, just invoke "gnugo". The  board  will
     be  drawn	at your terminal using ASCII letters.  In this mode, you can get
     help on available commands by the h key.  To play as Black  with  4  stones
     handicap, with a 0.5 komi, recording the game in the file record.sgf:

      gnugo --color black --handicap 4 --komi 0.5 -o record.sgf

     Playing a game with CGoban

     CGoban  is a general purpose client program by Bill Shubert for playing Go.
     It runs under X Window System with a beautiful resizeable graphic	display.
     To  use  GNU  Go  under  X Window System, obtain the most recent version of
     CGoban from Bill Shubert's web site

     http://www.igoweb.org/~wms/comp/cgoban/index.html

     Start CGoban. When the CGoban Control panel comes up,  select  `Go  Modem.'
     You will get the Go Modem Protocol Setup. Choose one (or both) of the play-
     ers  to  be  ``Program,''	and fill out the box to the path to gnugo. After
     clicking OK, you get the Game Setup window.  Choose  ``Rules  Set''  to  be
     Japanese  (otherwise handicaps won't work). Set the board size and handicap
     if you want. Click OK and you are ready to go.

     In the Go Modem Protocol Setup window, when you specify the path to GNU Go,
     you can give it command line options, such as --quiet to suppress most mes-
     sages. Since the Go Modem Protocol preempts standard  I/O,  other	messages
     are  sent to stderr, even if they are not error messages. These will appear
     in the terminal from which you started CGoban.

     Scoring system

     The game stops when both players pass. GNU Go will attempt to  compute  and
     report  the  score  to  you. It may occasionally make mistakes due to wrong
     evaluation of the status of a group. You can check the score as follows. In
     ASCII mode, at the end of the game, stones  believed  dead  are  marked  in
     lower case letters, and you have the option of toggling their status before
     counting.	 Using	CGoban,  you may use CGoban's counting facility to count
     the game using either Japanese or Chinese rules.

     Viewing a stored game

     gnugo -l filename.sgf --mode ascii

     loads filename.sgf and lets you navigate through the game by using the com-
     mands forward, back, goto and last.  It is not possible to navigate through
     variations in ascii mode.	You may also use CGoban to  view  stored  games.
     CGoban can navigate variations.

     Documentation

     The  files in the doc directory contain detailed documentation about debug-
     ging options and internal program structure.  Other  documentation  may  be
     found in comments throughout the source code.

     Go Modem Protocol

     The  Go  Modem  Protocol  is  a  standard interface between Go programs and
     graphical display.

     The Go Modem Protocol was developed by Bruce Wilcox with input  from  David
     Fotland, Anders Kierulf and others. Any Go program *should* use this proto-
     col since it is standard. Since CGoban supports this protocol, the user in-
     terface  for  any Go program can be done entirely through CGoban. Using the
     Go Modem Protocol, you can play with another computer running  a  different
     program  (even on a different operating system) using a modem, a serial ca-
     ble or over the internet if the other program also supports  the  protocol.
     You can also communicate with the Go servers using CGoban.

     Smart Game Format

     Games  (with  comments, variations and other features) can be stored in the
     Smart Game Format (SGF). This format originated in Anders Kierulf's program
     Smart Go. Martin Muller and Arno Hollosi developed  the  current  standard,
     which may be found at

     http://www.red-bean.com/sgf/

     GNU Go supports the Smart Game Format.

OPTIONS
     Main options

     --mode mode

     force the playing mode (ascii', gtp or gmp). Default is ASCII. If no termi-
     nal is detected GMP (Go Modem Protocol) will be assumed.

     --replay color

     replay the game generating moves for color, where color is white, black, or
     both. (requires -l)

     --quiet

     Don't print copyright and other informational messages.

     -l, --infile file

     Load the SGF file (to score or analyze a recorded game).

     -L, --until move

     Stop loading just before move is played (e.g. 154 or L10).

     -o, --outfile file

     Save the played game to file in SGF format.

     Game Options:

     --boardsize num

     Set  the  board size to use (1-19). Default is 19, other common formats are
     13 and 9.

     --color color

     Choose your color (black or white). Black plays first, White gets the  komi
     compensation.

     --handicap num

     Set the number of handicap stones.

     --komi num

     Set  the  komi (points given to white player to compensate advantage of the
     first move, usually 5.5 or 0.5). Default is 5.5.

     Informative Output:

     -v, --version

     Display the version of GNU Go.

     -h, --help

     Display help message.

     --help debug

     Display help about debugging options.

     --copyright

     Display copyright notice.

     Debugging and advanced options:

     -T, --printboard

     Show board each move.

     --level num

     Level of play. (default 10; smaller=faster, weaker).

     -b, --benchmark num

     Benchmarking mode - can be used with -l.

     -t, --trace

     Verbose tracing (use twice or more to trace reading).

     -r, --seed num

     Set random number seed.

     --score [estimate|finish|aftermath]

     Count or estimate territory of the input file. Usage:

     gnugo --score estimate -l filename

     Loads the SGF file and estimates the score by measuring the influence.  Use
     with  -L  if  you	want  the estimate somewhere else than at the end of the
     file.

     gnugo --score finish -l filename

     Loads the SGF file and gnugo continues to play by itself  up  to  the  very
     end. Then the winner is determined by counting the territory.

     gnugo --score aftermath -l filename

     Similar  to --score finish except that a more accurate but slower algorithm
     is used to determine the final status of the groups.

     If the option -o outputfilename is provided, the results will also be writ-
     ten as comment at the end of the output file.

     --printsgf outfile

     Load SGF file, output final position (requires -l).

BUGS
     If you find a bug, please send the SGF output  file  to  gnugo@gnu.org  to-
     gether with a description of the bug.

3rd Berkeley Distribution	      3.7.7			     .::gnugo(6)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=gnugo&sektion=6&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+15.1.quarterly>

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