I have finally stepped into the 21st century with the purchase of a small and cheap Android tablet. After checking the Google Play site, I discovered there are around 20 Go apps! Quite a shock and difference from my Mac computer where Goban is just about the only option.

Since I am still figuring out how the blasted tablet works (manual is small, in tiny print and terrible English, and I am an Android Virgin) I really don't want to download everything and test it out. Any recommendations would be welcome.

real time servers:
KGS
Tetsuki (igs)

sgf tools:
andgs
gobandroid

tsumego:
gogrinder
yoo changhyuk's

turn based servers:
andgs
online go server client

There's also stuff in foreign languages, but I think that covers a lot of the English options. Senseis library has a page on android apps as well.

Depends on what all you want to do. There are apps for playing online, tsumego, keeping game records, and even one that uses the camera to score the game for you.

I mostly find myself turning to the KGS app and ElyGo. The rest just depends on what I'm trying to do.

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Central Mississippi Go Club
http://www.cmgo.org

Since I don't have wireless at home, I'm mainly interested in one that would let me play against various go game engines without an internet connection, and view pre-loaded SGF files.

Go problems are good, too.

I will probably get the KGS app at some point, though I prefer to use my computer for that.

I also intend to download one of the chess clock programs, That should be fun to try at the go club! Amazing that they have an app for everything, though I sort of wish there was a virtual ING clock, so I could see if they really are as annoying as people say.

ElyGo offers a more fine grained set of options for configuring your game against the bot than most other apps I've looked at.

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Central Mississippi Go Club
http://www.cmgo.org

Crazy Stone is a good engine to play against. I use it once in a while when I have no connection to the internet.

ElyGo is a solid app and I'm looking forward to getting Crazy Stone when my Nexus 10 arrives. Having a potentially dan level opponent at my fingertips would be nice!

I'd also mention wegoigo, which has a nice stone placement system that works particularly well on small screens. It also has a nice set of features.

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Patience, grasshopper.

I too use wegoigo (the lite version) and am pretty fond of it. The stone placement system is very intuitive, and you can also run gnugo or download problem/game/joseki collections for it to look at.

I use crazy stone (Champion go) to play against, and wegoigo is really nice for reading kogo's



Ive seen yoo changhyuk's and thought it looked cool, but could never get it to register. On one it gives me an error,
and on another phone it just crashes

I had to email the support once for my password. They responded pretty quickly and may help you out if you haven't tried that route.

Thanks for all the suggestions! ^^

I'm trying Elygo and liking it, except...


I guess I will have to do my own scoring, if I want to know how big the gap was. Does the score normally get cut off like this, or is it just my tablet? Or is there some adjustment I can make?

I don't think I've run into quite that problem.

You should consider sending that screenshot to the app developer with a little info about what you're running it on.

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Central Mississippi Go Club
http://www.cmgo.org

I use KGS(for playing), andgs(for recording), gogrinder(for problems), and a Chess Clock(I have Simple Go Clock too, but this one allows you to set asymetric time. Great when a clock fails at a tournament and you have to replace it.).

I also have ElyGo, GoFree(basic go computer player. Not bad, but not very good too.), and Online Go(the Online Go Server app).
I don't recommend that scoring camera one, it never worked on my phone. Couldn't even get it to capture an image.

A few links at BGG.

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a1h1 [1d]: You just need to curse the gods and defend.
Good Go = Shape.
Associação Portuguesa de Go

I tried GoFree. I LOVE the look and the stone placement system, but I have it on Level 10 and it feels like an even game, so I may outgrow it pretty quickly.

Thanks for the links! Lots of interesting stuff on that page, even besides the Go.

Bears repeating -- do not judge the strength of computer go by the programs able to play on an Android device. Nor by the the strength of some of the bots running on machines far more powerful than what you might have at home (unless perhaps you are a very serious gamer).

The stronger go playing programs running on a "typical" modern home computer will range from perhaps 1-3 dan.

I do have a big enough machine at home and I think I could find a bot that could beat me on it but I'd still prefer to pay a small monthly fee to have a big server somewhere beating me on my phone.

The reason being that if I'm at home, in front of the big enough machine, I can play on any of the live servers. It's on my phone that I need an opponent that doesn't mind me playing three moves and then stopping for half an hour while not doing that himself.

What is this big server thing? Can you rent computer power or something like that? Also how strong are the android computers in 9x9? Seems like it would be more interesting that way.

It's a subscription based service that I think is only in use by the iphone edition of crazy stone. You pay a monthly fee and they keep a server somewhere that answers your moves. This gives you an app that works in a phone but with a strong AI.

Well, after having to return my tablet for a defect and a whole lot of problems getting my replacement, I'm back to puttering, and here's some comments on what I've tried:

Go Free - Pretty and fun for an easy game of 13x13 or 9x9. I especially like it for giving to newbie kids to play with because they can beat it, and it's a confidence booster. Not going to upgrade, though.

Gobandroid - It's the only Go app I've tried that will let you hold it sideways! Nice for review or playing against GnuGo. It will let you save actual SGF files. (Haven't tested that, but if it works, awesome!) Incredible variety of board sizes available, from 2x2 to 23x23. (Seriously, is a 2x2 game even possible?) It doesn't have much in the way of controls within the game, to open a game file you find the SGF with a file manager program, and choose Gobandroid to open it with. No coordinates on the board, which is annoying when you're reviewing a SGF with lots of comments like 'If you had played P13 it would have messed up white's influence and the m10 group would have died."

anDGS - I don't use the Dragon go server, so this is only good for review for me. This is one of the two programs I have capable of opening an SGF file. You can even open it from within anDGS...but only if you type in the filepath. (Needs browsing capability.) It is vertical-only, and also doesn't have an option for coordinates.

ElyGo Lite - Very ambitious, all-around program. Slightly incompatible with my tablet--the score gets cut off. Can't find a 'resign' button, don't know if there is one. No sound, apparently, at least not on my tablet. I believe the paid version lets you open SGF files, but no idea if you can save your own. Has some tsumego built in, lets you play on IGS or against Gnu Go. I may upgrade at some point. Or not.

Champion Go - Yeah, I bit the bullet and actually paid, after reading all the good reviews. Nice game engine, I find it a challenge to play. I tried an even game first and won, then cranked it up to full power, gave myself a 9 stone handicap, and got slaughtered. (Note: I was kind of trying to get slaughtered at first. I had a reason. But still, it kicked me around even after I got serious. For the sake of reference, I'm around 11/12k on KGS.) The program lets you save your games. And it had an option for coordinates on the board! Unfortunately, it apparently does not open outside SGF files for review. And the games you save on it are not accessible to other programs or to transfer to your computer. There is an option to export via e-mail, but if you haven't got your e-mail set up on your tablet, you are out of luck. (I only use public wireless at work, e-mail isn't practical for me.)

I haven't tried the new upgrade of WegoIgo yet, but I probably will. Looks like it has coordinates on the board...