Cgoban

Important Note

CGoban 1 is no longer under active development. Instead, I am working on CGoban 3 which is a port of the SGF editor of CGoban 1 to Java combined with a client for the KGS Go Server. It is missing the Go Modem Protocol adapter from CGoban 1 and the IGS/NNGS client from cgoban 1, but the SGF editor is a bit better (and of course the KGS client in it is much better than the IGS/NNGS client in CGoban 1). You can download it from the KGS web site.

About The Program

CGoban ("Complete Goban") 1 provides a large set of go-related services for Unix and X11. A list of the functions that it provides:

• Play go against another player. When playing a game locally, you have a choice of rule sets and time controls. I made a strong attempt at implementing the rule sets as precisely as possible:
  • Chinese rules have a true Superko rule.
  • Japanese rules correctly recognize seki and award no points.
  • Japanese rules let you locally resolve disputes at the end of the game.
• Edit and view SGF files. CGoban provides full functionality for editing and viewing SGF files.
• Connect to a go server over the internet. CGoban can connect to NNGS or IGS and gives a convienent graphical user interface to the server.
• Act as a bridge to go modem protocol. Go modem protocol has become a standard way for computer go programs to communicate. CGoban can let you connect to devices (such as modems) speaking go modem protocol, act as a graphical board for programs that speak go modem protocol out of stdin/stdout, or connect programs to one of the internet go servers.

Downloading CGoban

CGoban is distributed in source code. It uses the Gnu autoconfig system and should be portable across all Unix/X11R4 or later systems.

This link is to a binary object. You probably don't want to download it directly to your viewer. Download them to a file instead.

The complete source code, cgoban-1.9.12.tar.gz (330K)
This should compile on any Unix system with an ANSI C compiler (gcc works great). It's in tar file format, then compressed with gzip, so to unpack it you need a command line like "zcat cgoban-1.9.12.tar.gz | tar xvf -". Some web browsers will automatically uncompress this file as it downloads. If you end up with a file much bigger than the size listed above, then this is what happened and you don't need to run zcat.

Sample Go Modem Protocol Program

I also have a sample program that speaks go modem protocol, goDummy. The go modem code is in a separate module so it should be easy to combine this with any existing computer go program. Beware! GoDummy does not play go well! It mostly just moves randomly for a while, then gets bored and starts passing. I only intend it as a sample go modem program, not as a sample go playing program!
The goDummy source code, goDummy-1.0.4.tar.gz

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CGoban / wms@igoweb.org / 27 February 2002