KGS Go Server
The KGS Go Server, or simply KGS, is a popular Go server that can be accessed at http://www.gokgs.com/. It is common to have more than 1500 people logged in at any time, making it one of the largest Go servers in the world. Many high profile tournament games are relayed on KGS.
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The KGS Go Server first opened under the name Igoweb in April 2000. The original rec.games.go announcement can be found here. Just a month later, the author made an agreement with Kiseido and it was renamed to the Kiseido Go Server. It was renamed to KGS Go Server in 2006. William M. Shubert is the developer of KGS.
Besides its obvious use as online Go-playing software, it also has special features for teaching purposes. It is very easy to go through the game once it is finished to add variations and comments. You can ask an observer to add their own variations and you can save everything in SGF files. You can also upload games from your hard disk and review them on the server with your friends.
The client (known as CGoban3) has been written in English, and has been translated to Japanese, French, Italian, German, Chinese and other languages. More translations are welcome! The main "room" is called the English Game Room, but it is really an international room. There are also rooms where speakers of Chinese, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish are encouraged to meet. In addition, there are many, many other rooms from which you can choose, and you can also create new rooms if you so desire.
Installing KGS
You can log in to KGS using the website, with a Java applet, but for a more stable connection you can download the client CGoban3, which is also a good SGF editor / viewer. The client is written in Java, so you can use it under Windows, Linux, Solaris, and MacOSX.
- To install it for Windows, MacosX, Linux:
http://www.gokgs.com -> download link -> "CGoban with Java web start" link. See the
download page for more information.
- To install it for Windows while being offline: CGoban3 Offline Installation.
- Linux users with a recent Sun java can also run the command: /path/to/java/bin/javaws
http://files.gokgs.com/javaBin/cgoban.jnlp
There are no commands on KGS. You can do nearly everything from top line menus, buttons or using right-click menus.
(For those who may need it, the default server settings are host: goserver.gokgs.com, port: 2379.)
Rule sets
Four rule sets are available: you can choose between Japanese, Chinese, AGA, and New Zealand rules.
Time systems
You also have choice of four time systems:
- no time limit,
- sudden death,
- Canadian overtime, or
- Japanese overtime.
Multilingual support
- KGS supports Unicode, so there is built-in support for pretty much every language, although Bengali (বাংলা) unicode characters do not display correctly.
- There are several rooms for various languages.
- Several KGS Foreign Language Pages contain help and discussions in languages other than English.
KGS Usage
KGS People
- Bill Shubert (KGS developer)
- KGS Admins
- KGS Teachers
- KGS Tutors
- KGS High Dan Players
-
KGS Users by Geographical Location
- K5GS
- KGS Users Map
- KGS Clans
- KGS Rank Histogram
- KGS High-dan Game Network
- KGS Ranked Game Networks
- KGS Worst Admin
KGS Social Systems
- KGS Help Room
- KGS Team Tournament
- KGS Teaching Ladder
- KGS Leagues
- KGS Rooms
- KGS Rooms / Advanced Study Room
- KGS Rooms / Beginners' Room
- KGS Rooms / Board Game Geek
- KGS Rooms / Deutsche Ecke
- KGS Rooms / Discussion
- KGS Rooms / English Chat Room
- KGS Rooms / Hebrew Room
- KGS Rooms / Mind GC
- KGS Rooms / Policy Discussion
- KGS Rooms / Texas Go Players
- KGS Rooms / The Dan Study Room
- KGS Rooms / The Straw Hut
- KGS Rooms / Van Go Room
- KGS Rooms / Tsumego Lounge
- KGS Rooms / Florida Scholastic Room
- There is a Sensei's Library room on KGS (under Social Rooms).
KGS Development
- KGS Plans
- KGS Development Status
- KGS Wishlist
- KGS Bugs
- KGS Rooms / Policy Discussion
- KGS Bots
- KGS Related Utilities
Miscellaneous
- KGS Server Status
- KGS Issues (including escapers)
- Great Moments in KGS Chat
- KGS Tournament Broadcasts
- KGS Pic
- KGS Lectures gives the content of old KGS+ lectures and reviews of the teachers
- Use the Discussion page to report outages
-
KGS news
- A list of KGS+ lectures
-
Fuseki Info for KGS Go Server
-
The KGS Archives
- KGS mcan be run in Nokia N900
- KGS Spectator Statistics
Other languages
Comments:
The KGS Client is available on Android:
http://www.androidzoom.com/android_games/brain_puzzle/kgs-client_dxnk.html?related