Getting Started with Go365: A Tsumego Every Day
Hiroki Obara · Developer
Tsumego are the life-and-death problems of Go, the game also called baduk or weiqi. Black moves first, and the task is either to capture a white group or to make a black group live. In Go365 you play that move on the board. White replies, and a move that does not work is refuted on the board. This post goes through the app in the order you meet it, from the first screen to the daily challenge.
What Is Go365?
Go365 is a daily tsumego app for iPhone, iPad and Android. It holds 4,000 problems, 1,000 each at 1, 3, 5 and 7 moves. The problems are corner shapes on the 19x19 board, and the board shows only the part that matters, enlarged. It works offline, with no account and no ranking. Your progress stays on your device.
Step 1: Read the Four Pages of How to Play
The home screen has a HOW TO PLAY button. It is four short pages with diagrams.
Page one, “Kill or live”: Black always plays first, and each problem asks you either to kill the white group or to make the black group live. Page two, “Capturing stones”: stones with no empty points next to them are captured, and you may not play where your own stones would have no liberties, unless the move captures. Page three, “Two eyes live”: a group with two separate eyes can never be captured, so to kill you leave one eye and to live you make two. Winning a ko does not count as a correct answer. Page four, “Tap to play”, covers the controls.
The rules themselves are in Go Rules for Beginners. Eyes and life and death are in Living with Two Eyes, and ko is in The Ko Rule in Go, all with diagrams.
Step 2: Choose a Difficulty
Tap NEW PUZZLE and choose a difficulty. Easy is 1 move, Medium is 3 moves, Hard is 5 moves and Expert is 7 moves.
The count includes the moves of both sides. On Easy, a single black move solves the problem. Medium is Black, White, Black, so Black plays twice. Black plays three times on Hard and four times on Expert. Each problem is picked from that difficulty.
There are two kinds of problem, and the goal is shown above the board. “Black to play: kill White” means capturing the white group. “Black to play and live” means giving the black group two eyes. You always play Black.
Step 3: Play on the Board
Tap a point and a black stone goes there. You cannot play on a point that already has a stone, on a point where your own stones would have no liberties, or on a point that retakes a ko at once. The point flashes red, the app says “You can’t play there.”, and it does not count as a failure.
On any legal point you can play, right or wrong. After your move the app shows “White is thinking…” and White replies automatically. The screen shows which move you are on, such as “Move 1/3”, and the moves played are listed under the board.
If your move does not work, White plays the refutation and leaves it on the board for a moment, then “Wrong answer” and “White refuted that move. Try again from the start.” appear. A move played away from the problem area also fails, because it counts as tenuki, playing elsewhere. A move that differs from the main line but still works lets the problem continue, and reaching the end solves it.
Step 4: Retry and Review
A wrong answer is not the end. You can retry from the start up to three times, and the screen keeps count. When the retries run out you see “Game Over”. Tap Recover and watch an ad, and your retries are refilled so you can start again.
After a correct answer, the Review button lets you step through the line from the problem position. The buttons are Go to start, Previous move, Next move and Go to end. Close review takes you back to the result.
Step 5: Use a Hint
Use one HINT and the point to play next blinks. As the app puts it, “The hint is blinking. Play that move yourself.”
You start with ten hints. Solving the daily challenge adds one. Watching an ad also adds one, from “Watch Ad (+1 Hint)” during a problem or “Get +1 Hint” in the store.
Step 6: Solve the Daily Challenge
The home screen has a DAILY CHALLENGE button. Everyone in the world gets the same problem on the same day. The date is counted in UTC, so the new problem arrives at the same moment everywhere, at midnight UTC. No connection is needed.
The daily problem is 1, 3 or 5 moves, chosen for you. Solve it and the day streak on the home screen grows. Below it are your last seven days, and the DAILY CHALLENGE button shows a check on a day you have solved it.
Under Play reminders in Settings, you turn on the days of the week you want and pick a time. A notification then arrives on those days at that time.
Step 7: Two Settings to Know
The Gameplay section of Settings has two switches.
Tap twice to play. The first tap marks the point with a faint stone, and a second tap on the same point places it. This keeps a slip of the finger from becoming a move.
Show coordinates. Letters and numbers appear around the board. The moves listed under the board use the same letters and numbers, so you can match each move to its point.
The theme can be System, Light or Dark, and Music and Sounds each have their own switch.
Stats, and Picking Up Where You Left Off
The stats icon on the home screen opens STATS, with the number of problems solved, best time and average time for each difficulty.
If a problem is interrupted, the app remembers the position and the moves, and CONTINUE takes you back to it.
Where to Go Next
The rules behind tsumego are in Go Rules for Beginners, Living with Two Eyes and The Ko Rule in Go. Posts about Go365 will be collected under the Go365 tag.
Solving tsumego in Go365
Go365 contains tsumego from 1 move to 7 moves, with 1,000 problems for each length, 4,000 in total. You play Black on the board, and White replies automatically.
All problems are free to solve. The app shows ads, and a one-time Remove Ads purchase turns them off. Ads you choose to watch for a hint or to refill retries are still offered after the purchase.
