How To Record a Game

   

Go games have been recorded for centuries using paper and pen. Today, a game record may also be created using an SGF editor, but the manual approach is still the most convenient in many cases.

Game record forms

The form used for paper-based game records is called 碁罫紙 in Japanese, pronounced "gokeishi", and meaning "go ruled paper". In English, it can simply be called game record form or blank game record form. The game record form normally has a 19x19 grid, like a normal go board, or sometimes a 19x19 matrix of circles.

Game record forms are sometimes called blank kifu, kifu paper, or even just kifu, although this is wrong for several reasons. First, a kifu or game record is the record of an actual game. Second, there is really no reason to use the Japanese term kifu when there's a perfectly good English term game record.

Obtaining game record forms

Pads of pre-printed game record forms can be purchased anywhere go supplies are sold.

If you'd prefer to print your own, here are some links:

Forms with Circles

Blank game record templates (PostScript) designed by Dr. Fred Hansen of CMU can be downloaded [ext] here.

David: gamerecord.ps is hand-written PostScript, and the author has made it easy to change board sizes. Open the file in a text editor and change the following line:

 /boardsize  19	def		% number of lines

If you're so inclined, you can also change the club name and the watermark letter, and probably even more things.

If you need the game record form in PDF, you can use the ps2pdf program that comes with [ext] Ghostscript. There is [ext] a web site that has a web interface to that program, and it works very well.

axd: created a [ext] Powerpoint 2000 slide (can be easily modified for two-face and booklet-printing)

uxs: I'm busy modifying the postscript file above so as to have 2 blank game records on 1 page, side-by-side. Look for it in the next few days.

See also Pelle Evensen's Go-forms ([ext] http://www.evensen.org/go/goforms.html)

Forms with Lines

The [ext] website of the Belgian Go Federation has blank game record forms available in the "download" section.

Malweth: I created a blank game record form in HTML accessible from my webpage [ext] Tsumego-net.

In the worst case, here's how to draw a go grid freehand.

Recording the game

First, mark the handicap stones, if any, by simply drawing a black-filled circle for black stones, and an empty circle for white stones.

The number of each move is simply written on the location where it was played. Black moves are entered with a black pen and White moves with a different color such as red. Two-color pens are sold for this purpose, or you may just use two pens, taped together if you please. The point of using two colors is simply to make the game record easier to read. Use a pencil if you prefer to make it easier to erase mistakes. In any case, the first black stone will be a black "1", the first white stone a red "2", etc. Whether or not you use two colors, you may wish to circle the moves of one color, normally white, to distinguish them.

If a move is made on a point where an earlier move was made, e.g. in a ko, you write the number of the move (with its correct colour) underneath the diagram followed by the number of the previous move. For example, if Black 49 takes a ko on the point where Black 37 was played, you write "49 at 37" or even "49 takes ko at 37". If the location was previously occupied by a handicap stone, use the "49 at left of 22" notation, where 22 is a move played on the point to the right. It's possible, though less common, to use board coordinates to indicate where a move was played.

If the point where a ko is being taken is obvious, it suffices to just write "49 takes ko". A ko or other connection might be "49 connects".

If the move is a pass you just write "Black 183 pass" underneath.

It's very easy to make a mistake while taking a game record, and difficult to recover. The most common error is forgetting to increment the move number. This can be avoided by quickly checking mentally each time you record a move that the move number is odd if it's a Black move and even if it's a White move (in a handicap game, of course, White's moves will be odd-numbered).


ChadMiller notes: If the handicap stones are not specially treated in the beginning, then the ko notation "49 at left of 22" special case need not occur. I advocate numbering the handicap stones normally, just as if white had passed the first N times.

Andrew Grant: Of course, if you're just recording games for your own benefit you can use whatever system you like. But we don't really need multiple methods of recording games, and if you intend your game records to be understandable by others it is better to use the existing system as it is used by millions throughout the Far East, in which handicap stones are not numbered.


Contributors include Jonatan Lindstrom, Bob Myers, unkx80, Benjamin Geiger, Arno, Scryer, kokiri, uxs, ChadMiller.


uxs: I've been trying to record a game twice now: the first I lost count somewhere around the 80th move, and the second I was able to complete. It was 200 moves or so. While it's nice to have a record, I feel that I had to pay a lot of attention to it, which was probably detrimental to my game. Is the benefit of having records (which enables you to do reviews afterwards), worth the downside of not being able to pay 100% attention to the game ?

Niklaus: Right after buying a palm, I used it to record some tournament games. I soon stopped doing it, because it was a distraction. Nowadays, I bring it along to the tournament, and if I want a record of a game, I just do it after the end of the game. At the latest in the endgame my memory gets fuzzy, but usually the moves worth reviewing are early on in the game.

Velobici: Using a Palm to record games causes me to slow down a little and consider my moves more carefully...I have found that it prevents go-blindness, in which I occasionaly dont see an atari due to being too focused on a different move. So, my experience is that recording ones games is beneficial. I am also making it a habit to replay at least part of the games that I play on KGS.

Chris Hayashida: I use my Palm, even during tournament games. I find that it's more useful for study to have the games, even if it might be detrimental to my play. I learn more from having a record of my "serious" games then I do from trying to remember three games at the end of the day. I also think that my memory is faulty -- the parts that I don't remember well, like ko fights and the end game, are also parts where I'm making big mistakes. I usually can remember the opening and the beginning of the middlegame, but I don't feel I have as many problems there. I guess I think that it's more important to have a record of my games for study, instead of having my *best* game. That being said, I think the Palm is the easiest way to record, without having to remember what number you are on, who's move you recorded, etc. I was able to record fairly easily, even in 30-second byouyomi.

Bill: Back when I was playing more or less seriously, I found it very helpful to record my games in real time. I also made a note of which plays took me more than one minute to play. (That's an idea of Botvinnik's. Plays that take a relatively long time indicate positions that you find difficult and thus suggest where to focus your study.)

maruseru: Has anyone ever used a digital camera, or a mobile phone with a camera, to record moves? A picture every minute or so (depending on playing speed, of course) could later be used to reconstruct the game (e.g., transfer the images to a computer and use an SGF editor). With the new Java-enabled phones it might even be possible to program it to make a picture regularly, so all you need to do is position the phone and start the recording program (but I don't know how far the integration between phone and Java goes).

joshual000: At AGA Go Congress there was a guy doing a variation on this. Whenever he had a game reviewed by a pro he'd take a picture (digital camera) of alternate positions/diagrams.

ThaddeusOlczyk: I used to do it quite simply. I drew a board with ruler. Then I went to the departmental ( college ) photocopier and copied it.Still have about a have dozen of these sheets in a file folder.

I think it has some advantages to follow the chess practice of recording a players move before thinking and recording your move before playing. It did sometimes annoy other people.

Of course you use two different color inks ( usually blue/black/blue-black and red ).

What I'm suprised is no one mentioned something that would often happen to me. I would write down one move sifted by one, then use it to orient my self by it. About twenty moves later, I would realise my mistake and started fixing things. Big mess. The best thing would be to just continue on another sheet. Usually I would be able to piece together the game from the sheets.

I wonder if anyone has bothered to create a touch sensitive goban. So that when you place a stone it gets recorded.

Robert Pauli: Recording should be done after one's move -- especially if the record is a diagram. It's like trying out a move: never!

Chris Hayashida: I have to record games when I play teaching games with beginners, since I find it's hard to remember their moves. Sometimes I don't understand the reasoning behind their moves. Anyway, last night, I was caught! The other player said, "Hey, you recorded my move before I played!" (I was right, though.) He thought it was funny, though.

AshleyF: Related funny thing: A friend of mine and I have a habbit of each picking up the stylus and recording our own moves on the one device. Once while playing, he was staring at the Pocket PC instead of the real board while thinking and then slapped a stone down on the screen! Opps!


This is a copy of the living page "How To Record a Game" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2004 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
[Welcome to Sensei's Library!]
StartingPoints
ReferenceSection
About