American Go E-Journal » Tools: books, software & hardware

Almost since the day the iPhone came out, people have asked about a KGS client for the popular smartphone. An Android client for KGS was published a few years ago but iPhone users were still out in the cold. No longer: this year ShinKGS was developed by a go player who wanted to solve this problem.

KGS developers have been working on this client on and off for years. Every once in a while they would post on the KGS Google+ page with a status update. Last year they published the API for developers to create their own clients, and since then two have been developed. ShinKGS has received some support from KGS by having it be part of their website.

ShinKGS has been in beta for a few months and the platform has been very stable. It’s also been good enough that the new ownership of KGS has hosted it on their site. Monday at lunch at the Go Congress Todd Heidenreich (right), was able to watch the Masters Round 4, Board 1 battle between Zi Yang Hu 2p and Zirui Tim Song 1p on his iPhone.

Programmer Justin Kramer has open-sourced this project on GitHub and says that he and KGS are always looking for more programmers to help support the client. ShinKGS works well on a phone (left) of course, and is even easier to use on an iPad.

Ilya Kirillov has also been working on a HTML5 client for KGS called GoUniverse. His app can be found in the Google Chrome App Store.
– Steve Colburn

Ever since AlphaGo burst on the scene in January 2016 when it was revealed that the go AI had defeated European Go Champion and Chinese professional Fan Hui 2P 5-0 in a secret series, its games have been studied closely by go players around the world. As AlphaGo has established its dominance, defeating Lee Sedol 4-1 last year, amassing an astounding 60-0 record against top pros online this past January and then beating Ke Jie 3-0 in May, a number of commentaries have been published, both online and in print. The latest is “Invisible. The Games of AlphaGo,” (click here for a sample) a comprehensive collection of all 78 officially played games by AlphaGo against human opponents, 73 of them with professional commentary in English by Finnish go professional Antti Törmänen 1P and other professionals.

The title of the new book pays tribute to the classic “Invincible,” the collection of games by go master Shusaku, one of the . AlphaGo “has not only dominated the games against human opponents, but has also contributed a lot to the further development of go theory by playing some new josekis and setting new accents in the opening, and – last but not least – also breaking some previously valid iron rules of go theory,” says Tobias Berben of Hebsacker Verlag, which published the book. “You could say the AI has crushed the humans to free their go!”

“Invisible” is available to US customers for 40 Euros including shipping (book rate, uninsured) until the end of August 2017, when paying via Paypal to info@hebsacker-verlag.de; send your shipping address to info@hebsacker-verlag.de.

Slate & Shell has a new book available through Amazon. Professional players have begun to play a territorial style that differs from the ‘old’ style in that it focuses on making solid territory early and then creating a large fight in the center. “The New Territorial Style”  is a closely annotated study of this technique, by longtime author and teacher Yuan Zhou. As previously reported, S&S has ceased distribution of print books but publisher Bill Cobb reports that “Although we have run out of many of our titles, there are still some books available; visit the website to see the final price reductions.”

Shirt designer and “passionate” go player Joel Gabelman has a unique line of go-themed tee-shirts and hoodies available. One in particular — “Eat. Sleep. Play Go. Repeat.” — might be a must-have for anyone planning on attending the upcoming US Go Congress. Gabelman is offering 15% off for customers using the discount code TESUJI.