KGS Go Server

    Keywords: Clubs & Places, Software, Online Go

The KGS Go Server, or simply KGS, is a popular Go server that can be accessed at [ext] http://www.gokgs.com/.

http://files.gokgs.com/images/kgsLogo.png

Table of contents

The KGS Go Server first opened under the name Igoweb in April 2000. The original rec.games.go announcement can be found [ext] on Google. 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.

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, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, 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.

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:

Multilingual support

  • KGS supports Unicode, so there is built-in support for pretty much every language.
  • 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

KGS Social Systems

  • There is a Sensei's Library room on KGS (under Social Rooms).

KGS Development

Miscellaneous

Other languages


KGS Glossary A-Z

  • Admin (Administrator)
  • Automatch
  • flooding
  • ignore list (does it avoid seeing spam 'talk' as e.g. from user 'tommyzhy' to be seen during a game, avoid saving those spam entries with the SGF?)
  • saving
  • SGF
  • spam
  • symbols (meaning of: crown, star ... ?)
  • user

Comments:

caraoke?: go to your browser and type in [ext] http://files.gokgs.com/javaBin/cgoban.jar after you've downloaded the file (1.4mb) go to your console (on windows, click on start -> run... -> cmd) or on linux bash(or whatever terminal of your choice) type in java -jar cgoban.jar (assuming you're in the folder that you downloaded that file to)

in windows - there's a good chance java binary files aren't in your system path, and if you ain't keen on using a lot of command lines I suggest you copy cgoban.jar into your java bin folder (usually at c:\program files\java\jre\bin) then use cmd (dos terminal) to go there (command is "cd above path?") then type java -jar cgoban.jar

but most likely you won't run into java web start problem in windows anyway so I'll stop boring you with my rant here. Thank you and come again! (apu's voice)

Anonymous : KGS is the best server for all the non- Japanese/Asian speakers and Asian speakers too recommended for all!

KGS is the worst server possible if you are just starting out. People there will not play people without a fixed rank. Too bad that you can get this only by playing. Better look elsewhere KGS is only wasting your time.

xela: I disagree with the above comment. It's true that some people will be reluctant to play "serious" ranked games if they don't know who you are or whether you will stick around. So you just need to register your account, write a few words in your userinfo, then look for the Beginners' Room and say "Hi, I'm just starting out, would someone like to play?" (or something along those lines) and you'll find that many people are really quite friendly. Maybe play your first few games on a small board (9x9 or 13x13), or unranked, before you start playing ranked 19x19 games.

stefan It also depends on which room you are in. I noticed that people in other language rooms are much friendlier than people in the english room where everybody gathers.

C0nfuseki On the 1st of April 2009, KGS suddenly gave everyone a 9d ranking for the day.

JBrown: For today CGoban3 supports much more languages, than it is specified above.


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