Matching
In a fraction of a second, SmartGo can match a given position against all the positions in all the games in the library of professional games.
SmartGo can match positions on the whole board (fuseki) or in a corner (joseki). You are not bound to a fixed pattern size: You can change the area for matching to include additional points or exclude irrelevant points, and SmartGo will update the search results immediately.
You can turn on SmartGo's matching by choosing Tools > Joseki Matching. SmartGo will show the next moves that professionals have played on the board.
Rare moves are shown in a lighter color, so you can focus on the standard moves while still seeing other possibilities. Hover over the choices to see more information in a tooltip.
| Move | Games | % Wins | Year | Player |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 473 | 47% | 1952-2004 | |
| B | 80 | 53% | 1948-2000 | Takagawa Kaku (8), Otake Hideo (5), Chen Zude (5), ... |
| C | 73 | 36% | 1949-1997 | Takagawa Kaku (7), Hashimoto Utaro (5), Yamabe Toshiro (4), ... |
| D | 5 | 0 | 1951-2002 | Cho Chikun, Yamabe Toshiro, O Meien, Takemiya Masaki |
This is much more powerful than a joseki dictionary:
- Professional moves: Its shows moves that professionals actually played in serious games.
- Game context: It shows you the context the professionals played those moves in.
- Follow-up moves: It shows you the follow-up after the joseki: what happens after the joseki is played?
- Up-to-date: Just add recently played games to the library, and SmartGo will include the newest joseki moves.
Joseki Context
Turn on Joseki Context to get an idea of the typical surrounding position for a certain joseki. SmartGo uses light and dark shading to indicate where white and black stones are most often located along the relevant edges.
You can also sort moves by context to get a better idea of which next moves might best match the current position. Compare the two positions below: on the left the moves are sorted by frequency, on the right moves are sorted by how well SmartGo thinks a move matches the surroundings.
If you want more details on the context, click on the Matching tab. It lists the games that match that pattern, with each game oriented the right way so you can easily scroll through the games and compare the surrounding position to figure out when to play this joseki.
Go to Help - Common Tasks for more help on this topic.
You can also match arbitrary patterns along the edge or in the center of the board.