PANDA-glGo [1]

Our Review:

PANDA-glGo is a highly recommendable program. It allows you to play Go against your computer or online and has a pleasant and reasonably intuitive interface. The "Preferences" allow you to choose whether you want to see the board in 2D or 3D - a nice touch. There's a slider to adjust engine strength when playing against the computer.

In general, PANDA-glGo offers many features but is also beginner-friendly. It even has a charmingly illustrated tutorial teaching the rules of the game. It's a good idea to start off on a smaller board (eg. 9 x 9). The program is also a client for the free Internet Go server (IGS), where you can get to watch quality games without even having to register.

You have to download the GnuGo engine [4] separately if you don't have it already. The PANDA-glGo program kindly walks you through this when you first click the "Play GNU Go" button.

Just a word of warning about sound—an important feature in Go. When I tried switching from the default (Windows) sounds I lost the audio altogether and found myself having to do a clean reinstall to get it back (the issue is acknowledged in the genuinely helpful User Manual). Don't let this put you off trying this very likable program.