GO — Tronsoft Games Version 1.21.0 Release Date: September 9, 2026 OVERVIEW Go is the classic strategy game of territory and capture. Play locally against another person, challenge four computer AI levels, or watch two AIs compete on 9x9, 13x13, or 19x19 boards. V1.2 GAME SYSTEMS - Chinese area scoring or Japanese territory scoring. - Standard 2–9 stone handicap placement. - Untimed play or 10, 20, 30, or 60 minute main clocks. - Optional five-period 30- or 60-second byo-yomi. - Three local save slots plus automatic local save state. - SGF import and export. - Move replay with slider and first/previous/next/last controls. - Persistent local game statistics. - Traditional Wood, Dark, Tronsoft, and High Contrast board themes. - Classic, Flat, and High Contrast stone themes. - Optional coordinates, move numbers, territory estimate, sound, and fullscreen. HOW TO PLAY Black moves first unless handicap stones are placed, in which case White moves first. Select an empty intersection to place a stone. Connected stones form groups. A group with no liberties is captured and removed. Suicide is prohibited and positional superko prevents recreating a previous board position. PASSING AND SCORING Two consecutive passes enter scoring. Click or tap a group to mark or unmark it as dead. Select Accept Score to finish or Resume Play to continue. Chinese area scoring counts stones on the board plus surrounded territory. Japanese territory scoring counts surrounded territory plus captures and adjudicated dead stones. White receives the selected komi under either ruleset. SAVE / LOAD Choose one of three save slots and select Save. Load restores the board, rules, move list, clock, captures, handicap, and game state. The game also maintains an automatic local save snapshot for recovery support. SGF Export SGF creates a standard Smart Game Format game record containing board size, komi, rules, handicap setup, and moves. Import SGF loads common SZ, KM, RU, HA, AB, B, and W properties. REPLAY Use the replay slider or transport buttons to inspect any recorded position. Return to the final position to resume the live board. Gameplay controls are disabled while viewing an earlier position. TIMERS Main time counts down only while a side is to move. When main time is exhausted and byo-yomi is enabled, the player receives five periods. Completing a move resets the current byo-yomi period. Losing all periods loses the game on time. CONTROLS Pass P Undo U Redo Y New Game N Fullscreen F KEYBOARD BOARD Choose Focus Board, or tab to the board, to reveal the keyboard cursor. Arrow keys move one intersection at a time. Home returns to the center. Enter or Space plays at the selected point, toggles the active Study Board annotation, or marks a stone group dead during scoring. Escape hides the intersection cursor. After Opening Explorer compares moves, number keys 1-3 move the cursor to those candidates. Screen readers announce coordinates, stone color, group size, liberties, annotations, turn, and board mode. GAME MODES Human vs Human: two local players share the device. Human vs AI: choose Black or White and one of four AI strengths. AI vs AI: choose separate Black and White AI strengths. Two passes stop at scoring for final adjudication. NOTES Hard and Expert AI use Monte Carlo search and can take longer on 19x19 boards. The built-in AI is intended for casual play rather than professional-strength analysis. Tronsoft Games GO v1.3.0 ENHANCEMENTS ---------------------- - Teaching mode with legal-move guidance and self-atari/capture feedback. - Hover group inspection with connected-stone and liberty highlighting. - Optional legal-move overlay and AI move suggestions. - Redo support in addition to Undo. - Replay positions can be branched into a new playable game with Play From Here. - Move comments are stored with games and exported/imported through SGF C properties. - SGF metadata now preserves Black and White player names. - Replay panel includes live score-estimate analysis for the viewed position. - AI heuristics improved for captures, atari pressure, connections and cutting points. - Keyboard shortcut Y performs Redo. GO v1.4.0 REVIEW LAB ------------------- Review Game analyzes the current move line and plots an approximate score timeline. Large estimate swings are flagged as critical moves, which can be navigated with the Critical buttons. Bookmarks mark positions for later review. Influence Heat Map shows a lightweight local influence estimate; Group Status Rings classify groups by liberty count. VARIATIONS ---------- While replaying, Play From Here starts a new playable branch and preserves the previous line in the Review Lab variation display. Selecting a stored variation restores that line while preserving the current one as another branch. AI PERSONALITIES ---------------- Balanced uses the normal heuristic. Aggressive favors captures and pressure. Defensive values liberties and connections. Territorial favors edge/corner development. Influence favors center-facing development. Unpredictable adds substantial move-order variation. Personality is separate from AI strength. CHALLENGES AND LESSONS ---------------------- The Challenges & Lessons panel includes capture, atari-escape, and eye-building puzzles plus lessons for liberties, atari, ko, territory, and endgame play. These use the same rules engine and Teaching Mode overlays as normal games. GO v1.5.0 POSITION COACH ----------------------- The new Position Coach evaluates the displayed position and identifies the opening, middle game, or endgame. It reports the approximate leader, highlights groups in atari, and recommends an immediate tactical or strategic priority. Brief and Detailed explanations are available. Coach Move uses the built-in AI to mark a suggested intersection with a cyan ring without playing the move. Live Coaching updates after moves and while reviewing earlier positions. Coaching preferences are stored locally. GO v1.6.0 STUDY BOARD -------------------- Study Board adds circles, triangles, squares, X marks, and numbered sequences to any board intersection. Select an annotation type, mark the board, and return to Play Stones Normally when finished. Selecting an already marked point removes it. Annotations are preserved in manual saves and automatic recovery. Export Board PNG downloads the current board exactly as displayed, including stones, themes, teaching overlays, review marks, and study annotations. GO v1.7.0 OPENING EXPLORER ------------------------- Opening Explorer compares three legal candidate moves using captures, liberties, connections, pressure, and opening development. Candidate cards explain the main purpose of each move, while optional numbered rings locate them on the board. Selecting a card emphasizes that candidate. Candidate rankings are lightweight teaching guidance and are not professional-strength analysis. They refresh only when requested, keeping AI-vs-AI play responsive. LARGE-FILE SAFETY ----------------- SGF imports are limited to 4 MB. Oversized collections are rejected before FileReader loads them into browser memory. Download and split large collections, then import games individually. GO v1.8.0 STUDY REPORT --------------------- Export Study Report creates a self-contained HTML file for the current game. It includes the displayed board image, game settings, player names, captures, result, Position Coach summary, annotation count, and the complete move list. Move comments, Review Lab critical moves, and bookmarks are identified in the report. The downloaded report includes print styling and a Print / Save PDF button. No network connection is required to open it. GO v1.9.0 KEYBOARD BOARD ----------------------- The board is now fully operable without a pointer. Focus Board places a visible cyan cursor at the center intersection. Arrow keys navigate, Home recenters, and Enter or Space activates the current point for normal play, annotations, or dead-group scoring. The board provides spoken position descriptions including coordinate, occupancy, group size, liberties, study marks, turn, and replay/scoring state. Number keys 1-3 inspect the current Opening Explorer candidates. GO v1.10.0 MOVE QUALITY REVIEW ------------------------------ Review Game now rates every move as Best, Good, Inaccuracy, or Mistake using a lightweight local tactical comparison. The review compares captures, liberties, endangered-group rescues, connections, pressure, and self-atari against the strongest legal alternative found at that position. The Review Lab summarizes ratings separately for Black and White and identifies the weakest reviewed move. Jump to Weakest Move opens that position immediately. Move History shows compact rating badges, and the Study Report includes the summaries, weakest opportunity, and an explanation beside every move. These ratings are study guidance from the built-in analysis, not professional Go-engine verdicts. Their purpose is to reveal positions worth revisiting without requiring an internet connection or a minor supercomputer. GO v1.11.0 REVIEW ALTERNATIVES ------------------------------ Move Quality Review now records a useful local alternative for each move. For inaccuracies and mistakes, this is the stronger move found by the review; for a Best move, it shows the next comparison choice. Select a reviewed move and choose Show Alternative to return to the position immediately before it. A cyan ALT diamond marks the suggested point, and the explanation names its board coordinate. Practice Alternative creates a playable branch at that position and preserves the original line in the variation list. The suggested move remains highlighted, but you may choose any legal move and compare the resulting line. Study Reports now include suggested alternatives beside affected moves and identify the alternative for the largest local opportunity. GO v1.12.0 SCORING ASSISTANT --------------------------- The Scoring Assistant appears automatically after two consecutive passes. It provides a live Black and White breakdown using the selected Chinese area or Japanese territory rules, including stones, territory, prisoners, dead stones, komi, and neutral points as applicable. Groups with one or two liberties are listed for manual review. Next Disputed Group cycles through them and places an amber dashed ring around the entire group. Marking that group dead immediately removes it from the dispute list and recalculates the score. The assistant never marks a group automatically because life-and-death judgment remains the players' decision. Study Reports exported during or after scoring include the scoring method, neutral-point count, marked-dead totals, and remaining low-liberty group count. GO v1.13.0 SCORE AGREEMENT -------------------------- Human-vs-Human games now require separate Black and White confirmations before Accept Score becomes available. Each player confirms the currently displayed dead-stone markings and live score breakdown. Changing any dead-group marking automatically clears both confirmations, so an earlier agreement cannot silently survive a changed position. Games involving AI keep the two confirmation controls available for review but do not require both approvals. Study Reports record the final agreement status alongside the scoring audit. GO v1.14.0 SCORING REVISION HISTORY ----------------------------------- Scoring now includes dedicated Undo Dead Mark and Redo Dead Mark controls. Every group-status change made during the current scoring session is reversible, and the assistant shows how many changes are currently applied and whether a redo is available. Undoing or redoing a dead-group decision recalculates the score, refreshes disputed-group guidance, saves the updated position, and clears Black and White confirmations. A new scoring session starts with a clean revision history, and Study Reports include the applied revision count. GO v1.15.0 SCORING DECISION LOG ------------------------------- Every applied dead-group decision now appears in a collapsible Decision Log. Each entry records the group color, anchor coordinate, number of stones, alive or dead status, and the resulting Black and White scores. Undo removes the corresponding entry and Redo restores it, keeping the log synchronized with the board instead of preserving fictional history. The applied decision list is also included in Study Reports for a clear scoring audit. GO v1.16.0 SCORING IMPACT ------------------------- The Scoring Assistant now compares the margin at the start of scoring with the current margin after dead-group decisions. It shows both margins, the size and direction of the shift, and whether the leader changed. The comparison updates immediately after marking, unmarking, undoing, or redoing a group decision. Study Reports include the same initial margin, current margin, decision shift, and summary. GO v1.17.0 GROUP REVIEW CHECKLIST --------------------------------- Scoring now tracks every connected group as reviewed alive, reviewed dead, or pending. Next Unreviewed Group cycles through unfinished decisions and highlights the complete group; Confirm Alive records an explicit living-group decision without changing the score. Alive and dead decisions share the scoring revision history, Decision Log, agreement reset, and Undo/Redo controls. Study Reports include the completed review count and alive, dead, and pending totals. GO v1.18.0 SCORING REVIEW GATE ------------------------------ Accept Score and player confirmation remain locked while any group is pending review. Next Unreviewed Group supports individual decisions, while Confirm Remaining Alive records all unfinished groups as alive after a confirmation prompt. Bulk confirmations remain individual entries in the Decision Log and revision history, so each can be undone or redone separately. Study Reports now state whether the Group Review gate passed or remains blocked. GO v1.19.0 SCORING GROUP NAVIGATOR ---------------------------------- The Scoring Assistant now includes a filterable list of every connected group. Each entry identifies the color, anchor coordinate, stone count, liberty count, and current alive, dead, or pending status. Choose any list entry to focus and highlight its complete group on the board. Filter the list to Pending, All, Alive, or Dead groups, and use the Group Status Register in Study Reports for a complete final inventory. GO v1.20.0 SCORING REVIEW PRIORITY ---------------------------------- Groups are classified by liberties as Critical (one), Unsettled (two), or Stable (three or more). Pending groups and Next Unreviewed Group are ordered from fewest liberties upward, putting vulnerable groups first without declaring their life-and-death status automatically. The new Priority filter isolates pending Critical and Unsettled groups. Board highlights use red, amber, or cyan to match the assessment, and the Study Report Group Status Register includes each group's priority. GO v1.21.0 THREE-COLUMN GAME LAYOUT ----------------------------------- Wide screens now place live game information in a dedicated left sidebar, the Go board in the center, and setup, play, study, file, and analysis controls in a right sidebar. The information sidebar shows the current turn or state, game phase, move number, board size, captures, clocks, status message, scoring margin, group-review progress, and agreement readiness. Both sidebars remain visible independently while scrolling on wide displays. Medium screens keep the information panel beside the board and place controls below; phones stack information, board, and controls vertically.