# The &kigo; Handbook

## Introduction

### Gametype:

Logic, Board

### Number of possible players:

Two

&kigo; is an open-source implementation of the popular Go game (also known as Weiqi).

Go is a strategic board game for two players. It is also known as igo (Japanese), weiqi or wei ch'i (Chinese) or baduk (Korean). Go is noted for being rich in strategic complexity despite its simple rules.

The game is played by two players who alternately place black and white stones (playing pieces, now usually made of glass or plastic) on the vacant intersections of a grid of 19×19 lines (9x9 or 13x13 lines for easier flavors).

## How to Play

### Objective:

The object of the game is to control a larger portion of the board than the opponent. A stone or a group of stones is captured and removed if it has no empty adjacent intersections, the result of being completely surrounded by stones of the opposing color.

### Starting a Game

When you have started &kappname; you have two options to play the wonderful game of Go. You can either start a new game or continue an old one.

#### Setup a new game

When you have started &kappname; you should see a screen similar to the one shown in screenshot below. There you can set up both the white and the black player’s name and the board size. You can decide if one or both players should be computers. If you decide to play against a computer you can also set its strength. If you want to start the game you can either select Start Game from the Game menu, click on Start Game in the Game setup dock widget or by simply pressing the key S.

New game screen New Game Screen.

#### Setup a loaded game

If you decide to continue a previously unﬁnished game you can simply choose the Load... option in the Game menu (the menu is shown in the screenshot above). A ﬁle chooser should now pop up, use it to select and load the desired savegame ﬁle.

Now you should see a screen similar to the one shown on the screenshot below. If you do not want to continue with the last move made, you can revert as many moves as you like. You should see the board changing as you change the current move number. The setup screen also presents a lot of additional information about the saved game.

Just press Start Game to continue.

Loaded game screen Loaded Game Screen.

There is also the option to download history Go games or saved games uploaded by other users from the internet. Just click the Get More Games... in the Game menu. You should then see a dialog which allows you to choose which content to download.

Get new games Get New Games Screen.

### Playing a game

Now you are ready to play your ﬁrst round of Go. If you are not familiar with the rules, we recommend reading the corresponding Wikipedia article or take The Interactive Way To Go from Hiroki Mori.

Making a move is simple, just click on one of the intersections on the Go board. You should see a little black point which shows you where your stone would land if you click.

The current player can be determined by the cursor, which changes to a black or a white stone depending on which player is next.

You can also check the game information which shows also the previous move and some statistics. A complete move history is also available. If you want to remember in which order the stones on the board where placed, just click the Show move numbers button. If you think that you can’t gain anything by placing another stone, just click Pass Move and let your opponent take his turn. If both players pass, the game can be ﬁnished. Note that ending a Go game is always a cooperative step!

Playing a fresh game Playing a Fresh Game.

Note that you can save the current game at any time. Do this by entering the Game menu and choose the Save item.

#### Getting a hint

Sometimes it is diﬃcult to decide which move to make. If you want the computer to give you a little hint, just press the Hint button shown in the screenshot below. Now some transparent stones with a number on top should appear. These are actually your recommendations with a score. The score determines how good that move is. Feel free to click on any of the recommended moves or any other free ﬁeld to make set your next stone.

Getting a hint Getting a Hint.

### Strategies and Tips

- Go is more about surrounding territory (empty space) than capturing your opponent's pieces.

- Territory is easiest to surround near the corners (on two sides) then near the edges (on three sides) and lastly in the center.

- At the start of the game, space your pieces out. Only fill in your fence-lines when your opponent starts to intrude

- Do not play unsupported stones right next to your opponent's stones when attacking. They will tend to get swallowed and GnuGo is very good at that. It is often better to attack indirectly.

- To avoid capture, a group of stones must have two eyes or be able to make them if attacked. Eyes are disconnected spaces. Think of a doughnut with two holes. Your opponent can surround the outside, but cannot fill both holes at once.

- On the 19x19 board there are typically several territories being created, attacked or defended. You have to fight several battles simultaneously. The strategy involves evaluating the strengths and weaknesses in various areas and allocating your moves between them. Is it better to attack there or defend here?

- As the board fills up and the end-game approaches, it becomes important to play closer up, nibbling at your opponent's fences or reinforcing your own. Small mistakes and omissions can become very costly.

## Interface Overview

### The &kappname; Menues

&kappname; has a default &kde; game menues, except for the following items:

&Ctrl;G Game Get More Games...

- Opens standard &kde; KNewStuff dialog to load other users' saved games.

S Game Start Game

- Starts the new or the loaded game.

F Game Finish Game

- Finishes the current game. Remember that ending a Go game is always a cooperative step.

P Move Pass Move

- Allows you to pass a move.

H Move Hint

- Gives a Hint by showing the transparent stones with the score on them.

N Move Show Move Numbers

- Toggles move numbers visibility.

Settings Dockers Moves

- Shows or hides the Moves sidebar.

Settings Configure &kappname;...

- Opens a dialog to configure &kappname;. See Game Configuration section for details.

Additionally &kappname; has the common &kde; Settings and Help menu items, for more information read the sections about the Settings Menu and Help Menu of the &kde; Fundamentals.

### Shortcuts

The default shortcuts are:

### Shortcuts

Finish the current game | F
Get new games uploaded by other users | &Ctrl;G
Help | F1
Load saved game | &Ctrl;O
Pass a move | P
Quit | &Ctrl;Q
Redo a move that was undone | &Ctrl;&Shift;Z
Save the current game | &Ctrl;S
Start a new game | &Ctrl;N
Start new or loaded game | S
Toggle move numbers visibility | N
Undo your last move | &Ctrl;Z
What's this? | &Shift;F1

## Game Configuration

If you want to change how &kappname; is conﬁgured you can do that by navigating to the Settings menu and clicking on the Conﬁgure &kappname;... action.

You should now see the conﬁguration dialog as shown in the screenshot below. You can reach it also by pressing the key combination &Alt;S followed by &Alt;C.

&kappname; is extremely ﬂexible and can be customized as much as you like. You are able to change positions and size of all dock widgets next to the central play area. You can also customize the toolbar if you want to have diﬀerent actions accessible there. To do this just click on the Settings menu and choose Configure toolbars.... The same is possible for all shortcuts in the game. If you want to have the maximum space available for the game ﬁeld you can even hide the toolbar and most dock widgets in the Settings menu.

### General Configuration

The most important aspect here is the Go engine backend conﬁguration. &kappname; needs a valid backend to function properly. As you can see in the screenshot below, it used GnuGo by default. The little light next to the engine command shines green if everything works ﬁne. If this is not the case or if you want to use a diﬀerent Go backend, you should install a diﬀerent Go engine which can speak the GnuGo Text Procotol (GTP) and set its command and parameters accordingly. Details about this step should be found in the corresponding Go engine documentation.

General conﬁguration General Conﬁguration.

### Theme Configuration

This page will allow you to change the theme &kappname; uses.

Configure &kappname; - Themes Theme Configuration

## Credits and License

&kigo;

Program copyright 2009 Sascha Peilicke sasch.pe@gmx.de

Documentation Copyright © 2009 Sascha Peilicke sasch.pe@gmx.de

Documentation editing and Docbook conversion by Yuri Chornoivan yurchor@ukr.net

Default theme designed by Arturo Silva jasilva28@gmail.com

&underFDL; &underGPL;
&documentation.index;