File Format

    Keywords: Software

This page provides an overview of file formats that are used to store (and exchange) Go games.

Table of contents


Major file formats

  • SGF
    • The Smart Game Format, (originally the Smart Go Format?) is the most popular file format on the internet for games and problems.
  • SF, Ishi
    • This is the self-proclaimed Standard Format
  • Text diagrams
    • Used on Usenet to express games in newsgroups that disallow attachments, text characters formatted into a board are commonly used in discussions. Sensei's Library diagrams seem to be based on this practice. Many diagram editors can import these diagrams, and see also WinMGTToSLFConverter
  • UGF, UGZ
    • This format is mostly used in Asia, sometimes compressed and called 'UGZ'

Some other formats

  • [ext] XGF - An XML Game Format
    • This is a detailed draft proposal for moving SGF from its list format into an XML-based format. The spec warns people not to implement the format yet, though. XGF 0.1 is dated April 7, 2002, though, so it seems that the proposal gained too little developer support to be used.

Still to investigate

  • BDX
  • GIB
  • GO? I Believe that *.GO files are Ishi format. -- TimHunt
  • GOS
  • HON
  • Liberty
  • MPA
  • NGF

See also


This is a copy of the living page "File Format" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2005 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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