The GO problem tester was written in response to my desire to study GO problems quickly and efficiently, without either setting up the problem on a board (since I don't have one) or flipping back and forth through a book. I searched around, and couldn't find anything like it, so I figured I simply write my own.

This is most definitely Alpha class software, meaning that there are probably quite a few bugs in it, and it is not really packed with features. At this point, the tester iterates through a library of problems that I have created, and then lets you know that there aren't any more problems. You can only go forward, and there is no randomness or score keeping mechanism.

Like I said before, I basically wrote this for myself, but if there is enough interest, I'll add features that other people need. Check below for a list of known bugs and features that I plan to add in the future.

Please email me if you have any comments or suggestions. Definitely email me if you enjoy the tester and would like to see the features I talk about below implemented. I'll probably create an email list and send update announcements if there is enough interest.

I've come under a bit of fire from some representatives of a publisher (I think) requesting that I please refrain from posting the book online. It was a nice comment, though, and I have rethought exactly what I was doing. The entire reason that I wrote the program in the first place was because of how much I liked Yoshinori's book. The idea that I might be discouraging people from going out and buying it kind of bugs me. Now, it is my position that I wasn't posting the book online, I was simply posting information from the book, and information is not itself copyrightable. However, I was posting the information in the same format as the book, with the descriptions changed, and although I believe that legally I was in the clear, I was violating the spirit of copyright.
So what I've done is posted a new set of problems, from a source that had in turn gotten its problems from a source ages old. There are 11 this time, although I will most likely add more soon. The descriptions really stink, I know, but it's pretty late, and I should be working on something else. Some people have written me expressing interest in making problems themselves, and I am all for that. Ideally, I would like to get to work on all of the features that I have mentioned below, plus some other things that people have mentioned that I hadn't thought of. If there is anybody out there who wants to work on making problems available, let me know.
I think that the way I want to work is it to separate the page into three (is that enough?) separate pages, dedicated to Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert problems (although we are somewhat limited in the 9x9 board. That's one of the first things that I want to change). If I could get people who have collections of such problems, who want to work on them, we could probably get an extensive array of problems in no time flat. I think that could be really exciting.

Enough preamble. The Problem tester is below. Click on an intersection to submit your solution and see the correct answer. The next button will move you on to the next question.

Incidentally, I used to say "Click on an eye to submit..." but it was pointed out to me that I should use the word "Intersection" instead, because "eye" is used to denote empty intersections competely enclosed by pieces (i.e. what you get points for). Since the first two people who said anything about this page berated me for this mistake, I have decided to change it. However, I must blame my lack on knowledge not on ignorace, but on Arthur Smith, the author of The Game of Go, the first book I ever picked up on the subject. He claims that the Japanese use the word "Me" to refer to all of the intersections on the board. I've decided that all of the nasty email I get should just go to him instead :).

Feature List

As you can probably tell from my choice of literature, I am pretty new to this game (I've only played about 5 games). This of course means that my impression of what a GO problem looks like may be completely off base. What I have basically done is write a tester that can test me on the problems that I have encountered in that book. However, here is a list of features that I plan to add in the future:

• Support for different sections of problems. This support was written into the file format for the problem file, but neither the tester nor the maker can make use of that information.
• Random iteration. I would like to be able to go through the list of problems randomly instead of linearly, like the way it is now.
• Score keeping.
• Keeping track of which questions were answered correctly. This goes hand in hand with the random iteration. I think that questions that have already been answered correctly should not be redisplayed.
• The user interface needs definite work. There should be a Problem ID displayed, and the layout needs refinement
• A drop down box, letting you choose different problem files.
• The coordinates should be displayed on the board.
• Better indication of what your answer was, and what the correct answer was.
• Support for problems with multiple answers.

Some more issues that have been brought to my attention:

• A Back button. I was going to replace the need for the back button with random iteration and rehashing problems that have been answered incorrectly, but I think that a Back button is needed.
• I know that the cooredinate system is stupid. It would be a small issue to add numbers and letters to the side of the board, the way it is done in texts, but I was just displaying the internally used coordinate system. I promise to make it better.
• An explaination as to why certain wrong answers are wrong. One problem with that, is it takes more knowledge of the game that I certainly have. The problem writer would basically need to be working on problems so beneath his level that he knows which wrong answers are likely to be played and can explain why those answers are wrong.

I also have the problem maker, if anybody is interested in authoring their own problems. The problem maker has a few bugs that I can't seem to work out, but I'll still send it to someone who wants it. You will need either the JDK (Java Development Kit), or the JRE (Java Runtime Environment), both available from SUN

Bug List

• If you click around after you are told that there aren't any more problems, an exception for each click will be generated. You won't even notice it unless you have the Java console open, but if you do, you will see chaos. It doesn't effect the operation of the applet, though, and as such is quite minor.

Revision History

• July 20 - Changed colors. Added axis labels and designated the upper left intersection to be (1,1) instead of 0,0.

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