Pattern Matching

With SmartGo, you can match arbitrary positions anywhere along the edge or in the center of the board (like Kombilo). You can explore professional responses to monkey jumps, crosscuts or invasions, or learn how to handle a particular pattern from your own game.

Examples

White to play.

Large monkey jump (3284 positions, 2.36 seconds)


 

Side pattern (38 positions, 0.16 seconds) - with and without follow-up moves


         

Center position (7 positions, 2.81 seconds). Note that matching positions are automatically rotated to make it easy to compare matches.

Do Your Own Matching

Library
  1. Choose View > Tools > Pattern Matching if the Pattern Matching tools are not yet visible.
  2. Click the Modify Selected Area icon.
  3. Click and drag on the board to mark the area you want to match.
    • Hold down the Ctrl key to mark a rectangle.
    • For edge matching, include a point along the edge.
    • For center matching, make sure no edge points are included.
  4. SmartGo will show you the next moves played in matching positions.
    • Move the mouse over the letters to see tooltips with more detail.
    • Library Settings Click on the Library Settings icon to set options such as maximum time for matching, or mark moves that are significantly better or worse.
    • Choose View > Show Diagram Caption (Ctrl+Shift+B) to see the number of matches below the board.
  5. Switch to the Matching tab to see the matching positions.

You can download more examples for position matching.

Note that SmartGo can also match joseki (corner positions): see Matching and Study Fuseki or Joseki.

Competitive Comparison

We invite you to compare SmartGo's pattern matching to any competitor that implements similar functionality:

  • Performance: How fast is the matching? (Be sure to set the time limit in Tools > Options > Library to a high number to get a proper comparison.)
  • Results: Are the matching positions all rotated and color-coordinated to make comparisons easy? Can you replay the matching games and explore variations?
  • Correctness: Does the algorithm handle captured stones correctly?
  • Convenience: How hard was it to set up the library and do the matching?

We are confident that SmartGo wins any such comparison hands-down.