BadukPop Go 4+

Great Go App to play friends

This is a great app to play friends in go. There is a 24 time limit to respond to your opponent’s move (it can also be shorter but the 24 hour time is nice to keep play moving while also giving plenty of time). I use a different app for puzzles because this one doesn’t let you review puzzles without paying, but you can review games which is nice. You can play on different board sizes and with handicaps, plus it scores the game at the end.

Good app, but confusing lessons/puzzles

I’ve learned go from absolute beginner using this app to some extent, but I’m continually frustrated by the lack of explanation or follow-through in the lessons and puzzles. The explanations given don’t really explain why “the group is saved!” or “Oops, the group is dead.” If they would only show what actually happens if the puzzle were played through to its conclusion (capturing stones, etc.) or what makes a group dead, then I think I would get a lot more out of the lessons and puzzles. I’ve honestly gotten more out of just playing 9x9 online using this app, and have been able to occasionally even win against much more highly rated players. I still often struggle to recognize when I should stop trying to capture a group or even resign and am sometimes surprised that I scored so low (or high, as the case may rarely be). I just feel a lot of the time like I’m missing something and have to look things up on websites like Sensei’s Library, where if the app could just explain puzzle reasoning better I may not have to.

Developer Response ,

Thanks so much for the review! We agree 100% with your feedback, and are working on more in-depth explanations for puzzle answers right now. We're so happy you are still practicing and are getting stronger at Go!

not a good way to learn

It’s cool that the lessons exist, but often the AI seems to play by different rules than what the lessons say is possible (I can almost never capture my AI opponents stones in false eyes or edge ko’s well after the ko move, but AI captures mine in the same scenarios). The practice lessons don’t explain the reasoning behind them that would explain these discrepancies despite trying to explain the basic patterns, so I usually end up way more confused than I end up playing with friends who know how the game works.

Also the practice lessons include scenarios that would be so unlikely to happen they are borderline illegal.

I had to look this up online, but apparently the korean system treats and counts Seki capture very differently in the scoring than Japanese Go does. Even knowing that, and having learned how to count scoring, I still can’t figure out where they are getting the crazy high score numbers the AI usually gets. Its like they’re combining capture points with territory points.

I’m still learning Go, so I appreciate any chance to look at the pieces at all since I don’t have a physical board at home. The app is convenient. I’m just a little worried it’s messing with my comprehension of the game as I try to get a better handle on complex endgame scoring, ko, seki, and false eye scenarios.