Smart Game Format

    Keywords: Software

Smart Game Format, commonly abbreviated as SGF, has become a common file format for storing game records of board games for two players.

The SGF file format is very widely used for storing Go game records. SGF is also commonly (incorrectly) referred to as Smart Go Format.

Table of contents

About the format

The SGF file format is designed to store game records of board games for two players. It's a text-only, tree-based format.

Games stored in SGF format can easily be emailed, posted or processed with text-based tools.

The main purposes of SGF are to store records of played games and to provide features for storing annotated and analyzed games (e.g. board markup, variations).

SGF files are comprised of pairs of properties and property values, each of which describes a feature of the game. A partial list appears below. Full information can be found using the references in the Links section below.

  • AB: Add Black: locations of Black stones to be placed on the board prior to the first move.
  • AW: Add White: locations of White stones to be placed on the board prior to the first move.
  • AN: Annotations: name of the person commenting the game.
  • AP: Application: application that was used to create the SGF file (e.g. CGOban2,...).
  • B: a move by Black at the location specified by the property value.
  • BR: Black Rank: rank of the Black player.
  • BT: Black Team: name of the Black team.
  • C: Comment: a comment.
  • CP: Copyright: copyright information. See Kifu Copyright Discussion.
  • DT: Date: date of the game.
  • EV: Event: name of the event (e.g. 58th Honinbo Title Match).
  • FF: File format: version of SGF specification governing this SGF file.
  • GM: Game: type of game represented by this SGF file. A property value of 1 refers to Go.
  • GN: Game Name: name of the game record.
  • HA: Handicap: the number of handicap stones given to Black. Placment of the handicap stones are set using the AB property.
  • KM: Komi: komi.
  • ON: Opening: information about the opening (fuseki), rarely used in any file.
  • OT: Overtime: overtime system.
  • PB: Black Name: name of the black player.
  • PC: Place: place where the game was played (e.g.: Tokyo).
  • PW: White Name: name of the white player.
  • RE: Result: result, usually in the format "B+R" (Black wins by resign) or "B+3.5" (black wins by 3.5 moku).
  • RO: Round: round (e.g.: 5th game).
  • RU: Rules: ruleset (e.g.: Japanese).
  • SO: Source: source of the SGF file.
  • SZ: Size: size of the board, non square boards are supported.
  • TM: Time limit: time limit in seconds.
  • US: User: name of the person who created the SGF file.
  • W: a move by White at the location specified by the property value.
  • WR: White Rank: rank of the White player.
  • WT: White Team: name of the White team.

There is no strict checking of the contents of these tags, so it is possible to put any text into the result tag for example.


SGF format example

This is an example of a tsumego problem stored in SGF format. Please note that this example comes from [ext] GoProblems. See that site for copyright information.

 (
 ;GM[1]FF[3]
 RU[Japanese]SZ[19]HA[0]KM[5.5]
 PW[White]
 PB[Black]
 GN[Copyright goproblems.com]
 DT[1999-07-21]TM[1800]
 ;C[Black to play and live.]
 AW[bb][cb][cc][cd][de][df][cg][ch][dh][ai][bi][ci]
 AB[ba][ab][ac][bc][bd][be][cf][bg][bh]
 (;B[af];W[ah]
 (;B[ce];W[ag] C[only one eye this way])
 (;B[ag];W[ce])
 )
 (;B[ah];W[af]
 (;B[ae];W[bf];B[ag];W[bf]
 (;B[af];W[ce] C[oops! you can't take this stone])
 (;B[ce];W[af];B[bg] C[RIGHT black plays under the stones and lives])
 )
 (;B[bf];W[ae])
 )
 (;B[ae];W[ag])
 )

Specific tools

  • CommentFilter This perl program allows you to strip unwanted comments from an SGF file downloaded from KGS.
  • RemoveTag This perl program allows you to strip unwanted properties from an SGF file, plus any empty Comment tags.
  • Sgf2dg convert Smart Go Format (SGF) files to diagrams similar to those seen in Go books and magazines.
  • [ext] SgfMan. A must-have for those using PilotGOne and Go for PalmOS, specifically because, among it's other features, it's capable of converting SGF files on a memory card into MemoPad files which can then be read by the aforementioned programs.
  • [ext] sgfMerger by Bill Shubert. A command-line java program that combines multiple SGF games into a single SGF file. It is useful to create a game collection for distribution in a single SGF file. But it does not merge two SGFs which are based upon the same game into one SGF.
  • [ext] http://www.set1.org/sgf/ (under development) seems to present the possibility to send SGF as a URL, so the receiver does not need an SGF viewer. Can be handy on turn-based servers. 19x19, no variations

Other software that can handle SGF

%to review: just list the apps, go there for more blabla; no ads here (the respective pages are great ads).
  • CGoban1 can be used as an SGF editor as well as its primary role as the client for IGS, NNGS and other Go servers.
  • CGoban 3 (and its predecessor CGoban 2) can be used as an SGF editor as well as its primary role as the client for KGS.
  • EidoGo is a web-based SGF editor (allows uploads and saving changes on the server)
  • Drago
  • glGo Can be used as an editor, to play aganist GnuGo and to play in IGS. Has a 2D and a 3D goban.
  • GoAssistant
  • Goban [ext] http://www.sente.ch/software/goban/, for Mac OS X, can be used an an SGF editor, as an IGS client, as a client for local network, or for games against the included GnuGo.
  • GoHome [ext] http://www.reisz.de/gohome.htm
    • many features, gtp protocol, problem files, 6x6 solution, printing and exporting diagrams, can create problem files, pattern search, allows sgf source code level editing, document/view architecture, is fast (windows)
  • GoRilla ( Windows. ) A free SGF game editor for Go, Connect6 and other games.
  • Jacoto Create your own database of games.
  • Jago, a free (GPL Licence) Java Go Client and SGF editor.
  • Kombilo A pattern searcher for go games.
  • MultiGo
  • qGo can be used as an SGF editor as well as its primary role as a client for IGS.
  • [ext] SGF Replayer, by Go4Go's [ext] http://www.go4go.net/, is a Go game record reader written in Java. It is designed to be a convenient tool to replay Go games and read game commentaries.
  • SmartGo The SGF editor by the inventor of SGF.
  • WinHonte
  • EgobanOrg hosts players games collections and can replay sgf through the web
  • SGF Shell Extension?[ext] http://www.gomasch.de/sgfshellex : Extension for MS-Explorer to display properties of SGF files

See SGF-editor for a longer list of SGF editors and clients.


Web Viewers

The following is a list of programs that can be used to allow website visitors to view SGF files. Another list of viewers can be found at [ext] http://herebox.org/go/tools/.


Historical notes

The first version of SGF, FF[1], was conceived by Anders Kierulf. It is Appendix A in his Ph.D. thesis.

The current version of the SGF is FF[4], and is supported by most current SGF readers. FF[2] was never made public.


Notes

Most Go servers are able to send you an SGF file of a game you played. SGF files are used by many Go editing programs and are even used on rec.games.go.

Sensei's Library also uses SGF files - all the diagrams on SL can be downloaded as SGF simply by clicking on them (see How Diagrams Work).


Links

See Also


This is a copy of the living page "Smart Game Format" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2009 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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