Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
Having watched the AlphaGo and Lee Sedol matches via YouTube, I decided to buy a couple of books and give Go a try. I managed to easily find a couple of Go apps for Android, but had difficulty finding a good piece of Go software for Linux. Eventually I came across GoPanda. GoPanda is basically a front-end for IGS PandaNet (aka: Panda Network) that allows players to watch, play and discuss Go. The software can also let you review Go games using the SGF file format. While having Java-based software may make some people groan, at least it allows Linux users to get involved in playing Go.
Registering Head to the PandaNet site at: http://pandanet-igs.com/. In the right-hand-side column, there’s a button saying ‘Register’. Click that. Or you can click the big ‘Play on Pandanet!’ button to get a popup with a registration button. Fill in the details such as username, password, email, etc. Finally, click ‘Register’, and wait for a confirmation email. Since the confirmation email can sometimes take a little while, let’s get installing.
Installing First thing to do is grab the archive file from: http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/gopanda2/100/ For using the software there’s also a PDF manual at: http://www.pandanet.co.jp/top_newsph-igs/GoPandasmanual.pdf Unarchive the .tar.gz file to somewhere, and open that newly created GoPanda2 folder. In there, you’ll see an icon called GoPanda2. That’s the executable to run GoPanda. Double-click it and you’re off and running! On the first run, the software will update itself.
Playing Top right, in the GoPanda window, is the login button. You’ll need to log in to connect to PandaNet: You’ll now be in the main room (shown above) with a list of currently playing matches. You can click on one of these matches, and, from the popup menu, choose ‘Observe’ (shown below). You are now watching the match… live. Everything in GoPanda opens like browser tabs, so clicking the X in the game tab (below the GoPanda logo) lets you leave the game. So, now you’re back to the main room. Now what? Well, if you’re like me and don’t want to just dive in and get soundly thrashed by a pro, you click the drop-down menu (in the main room) and choose ‘Beginners (Robots)’ (shown top right). This opens a new tab with people playing robots.
But, on the right hand side (where it lists players), you’ll see players named Robot. They’re available for games. Most are 12k+, which means they’re more than enough for a total noob like me. Click a robot name, choose ‘Challenge’, and you’ll get a popup with some game settings. Things such as rules, board size, handicap/not, time, etc. Finally, click OK. Don’t be surprised if it says the player is already in a game. This happens when someone jumped in before you to challenge that robot. Try another robot. TIP: check the games in progress on the left to see which robots are currently in use. So now you know how to observe and play on PandaNet. But there’s more! You can click on a player's name to view their stats, send messages, add as a friend, and (best of all) you can click ‘Game archive’ and see a list of their past games. From that list you can then observe (or download) the game to watch it step-by-step.
Go On The Go For Go, on the go, there’s also Android and iOS apps for GoPanda. Android app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=be.gentgo.tetsuki&hl=en_GB (sorry, I’ve no iOS device for an app link).