Turn-Based Go Servers
... allow you to play Go whenever you like, for as long (or short) as you want, from wherever you are: at home, at work, abroad ... "Time" has a slightly different meaning on these servers.
For real-time Go servers, see Go servers.
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You do not have to finish a started game at once. You log in once every 12, 24, 48 or n hours (or every few minutes :) to place your next move, whenever you feel for it or have the occasion. Thus games can (sometimes will) take several weeks or even months.
For those of us, who wish not to be online all the time (or to get into a long game at one session), this is a great alternative. Most turn-based Go servers require only a web browser; so no need to download/install a Go client, or having to ask an admin to reconfigure a firewall; even a public PC with Internet access will do: kiosk, library, office ...
Dedicated Go servers
- Dragon Go Server (DGS)
- Go only server with many features: a reliable rating system, handicaps up to 35 stones, nigiri, many time systems, boards from 5x5 to 25x25, unlimited number of simultaneous games, unlimited number of moves, fora, multilingual support. Free.
- OGS aka
Online-go
- Online-go is a new site dedicated purely to turn based go. Supporting both Chinese and Japanese scoring rules, and with a mini-tournament system set up, the aim is to be able to have more structured tournament play between players. To this end there are also occasional large scale tournaments held. There is support 9x9, 13x13, 19x19 size boards, adjustable komi and handicap stones, and also support for proper handicap games and even games with nigiri. There are now two separate timing methods, Fischer time (Initial days + increment days < cap days) or long blitz (days per move). Registered (free registration) users get a set amount of holiday per year that they can use to extend their time limits. Finally, there is a forum and improvements section to allow users to suggest and comment on ways to further improve the site.
Four Color Go (4CG)
- Small experimental turn-based Go server supporting only 19x19 games with 4 players. It has only very few features which allows you to play the games. The source code is available and the developer is happy to include third-party code contributions.
- KGS
- It is also possible to play turn-based games on KGS, by setting the time system to "None". Then it's possible to make your move even if the opponent is not logged in. Playing turn-based games at KGS has the advantage that you can play in realtime if you want the game to finish a bit sooner than it would with one move a day. The disadvantage is that there is no time limit. Free + membership. (Java)
Last but not least: Our very own Sensei's Library allows to play ongoing games.
General turn-based servers
BrainKing
- As of April, BrainKing? added Go (19, 13, and 9) to its huge list of playable games, alongside Chess, Shogi, Xiangqi, Pente, and many (many!) others. Multilingual.
FICGS Go Server
- Free International Correspondence Chess & Go Server, several languages (among which English (origin), French, Italian, German, and Spanish).
- Little Golem
- Turn-based game server, including 9x9, 13x13 and 19x19 Go. This server is centred around tournament play. Individual (unrated) games are also possible. Time limit is 240 hours per player plus 36 hours per move, but with vacation time a game will only time out when a player does not move for 30 days. (HTML)
- ItsYourTurn.com (IYT)
- Includes Go, Go-Moku, Chess, Chinese Chess, and other games. Time limits are from 3 days per move to 45 days per move, but allow no byo-yomi. Free + membership. English only?
qigame.com
- turn-based game playing for Go, Gomoku, Othello etc. "qi" in chinese means board games like chess, go etc. qigame.com has implemented the idea discussed by AshleyF/jfc below. We call it premove or preplay, come to qigame.com to try it out.
- JijBent
- Dutch server where all kind of games can be played. Just one of them is Go (19x19 and 9x9). Free + membership. (Java)
Varia
Turn-based Go Guild (TBGG): A group of about 100 people, who play turn-based Go. They maintain a related web site and mailing list.
During the late 90ies Go players, unsatisfied with the It's Your Turn game server's features of that time, gathered at TBGG's mailing list. Which finally lead to the creation of new turn-based Go servers. TBGG's focus shifted since then, but TBGG remains to be a community of people, who like to play turn-based Go.