Play Go with KataGo - completely offline - anywhere, anytime. No subscription required, no ads! Full KataGo strength and realistic human playing levels from 10k to 9d.
SakataGo – Play Go offline with KataGo
Bring one of the world’s strongest Go AI engines, KataGo, directly to your iPhone or iPad — fully offline, no internet or servers required. Play, analyze, and improve your Go game anywhere, against AI opponents ranging from advanced beginner to professional and superhuman levels.
Key Highlights:
- Fully offline KataGo AI – play anywhere, anytime!
- Adjustable AI strength: from 10‑kyu to full KataGo strength
- Realistic board and stones: Hyuga Kaya boards with slate and clam shell stones
- Game analysis and hints: review moves, estimate territory, and check win rates
- SGF support: open, share, and store Go game files easily
Please note: The hardware of the iPad 7th generation from 2019/2020 (A10 Fusion chip) is not compatible with the human imitation modes in SakataGo. The app will have a weaker performance on these old devices.
Play & Learn
SakataGo combines the KataGo engine with powerful analysis tools:
- Step through games forward and backward, get AI hints, and see territory and win rate estimates
- See color indications for move quality when reviewing games (green, yellow, orange, red, and purple according to point loss)
- Store up to twenty positions in a review stack and cycle through them
- Continue playing from any review position, keeping the reviewed game stored or in the clipboard
- Choose between human imitation levels (10‑kyu to 9‑dan amateur) or full KataGo strength, based on current neural network models (2025/2026)
- Switch opponent strength, AI player and think times during a game to test different reactions
Main User Settings:
- AI Player (white, black, none, or both (self-play))
- Board size (9 x 9, 13 x 13, 19 x 19)
- Handicap and Komi adjustments
- Choice of Japanese or Chinese rules
- AI think time and hint calculation time
- Optional on-screen win rate and score display
- Select between two KataGo neural net models (small and large)
- Switch sound on or off
Realistic Design
- Enjoy a beautiful, natural board and stone setup, with slight imperfections for a realistic feel.
- SakataGo’s easy-to-use interface focuses on essentials so you can focus on playing and improving your game.
Game Sharing & SGF Support
- Open SGF files from the Files app, from the clipboard or via Share Extension
- Share games or positions via clipboard or compatible apps, or save to file
- Note: variants in SGF files are not supported; SakataGo’s main focus is offline AI gameplay and review. However, by using SakataGo's review stack and clipboard functionalities, you can easily play out variants and return to former positions.
Why "SakataGo"?
The app name was chosen both in honor of Eio Sakata (坂田 栄男, 1920-2010) and KataGo (*2019), combining the names of one of the leading professionals of the 20th century with today's leading Go playing AI.
Incomprehensible UI, and no way to try it without paying full price. Apple refused a refund.
Developer Response
Dear MiloTP, I am very sorry to hear that you find SakataGo's UI incomprehensible. In fact, I have never had that feedback from any user so far, so I would be very interested to know what you find incomprehensible, where the difficulties are, and what could be improved in a future version. Could you please give me some more details on that? If you only find the button symbols confusing, please consider a long press on the help button ("?") to show their meanings written out on screen (a short click on "?" will show a help screen with explanations). The button symbols were chosen to be minimalistic to divert as little as possible from the board, but when you add the help texts, the UI is still quite clean and then maybe easier to use? The app implements a rather typical and puristic Go playing interface for playing against KataGo, with the necessary settings for the Go game (like opponent strength, board size, handicap, komi), a help button, an undo button, a pass button, a hint button, a share button etc.; --- all functionalities a user would expect from any Go playing app. In addition there are store/load functionalities (also rather common) and the game review buttons below the board. The functionalities are similar to other Go playing interfaces like Katrain, Sabaki or on Go servers. In fact, I am getting very positive feedback on the app from Go players in Japan, Korea, the USA, Germany and other countries. I would very much appreciate some more detailed feedback to see what is problematic in your view to be able to help. For additional info how the app is used, you can also consult the app's website and look at the demo video and explanations there. (As to why Apple refused a refund, I cannot comment at this point because I did not receive any information on that so far.) Best regards, Torsten Hefer
(1) Self-play functionality
(2) Optional automatic hints in analysis mode
(3) Added the possibility to resign instead of just stopping to play.
Version 4.0
The developer, Torsten Hefer, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
Seller
Torsten Hefer
Size
580.9 MB
Category
Board
Compatibility
Requires iOS 18.6 or later.
iPhone Requires iOS 18.6 or later.
iPad Requires iPadOS 18.6 or later.
Mac Requires macOS 15.6 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
