The following is a little tutorial I wrote mainly for some of my friends. It's probably something most of you already know how to do and have done already, but I thought I'd share it here anyway. It might help some of the people that are new to go (and did not come from an IT background ^^). You can view the original blog post here.

Having a database with pro games is an invaluable tool in the go player's arsenal. In order to improve, you'll eventually need to analyse your own games, and in this type of study you are bound to encounter a lot of questions concerning certain positions. Be it for studying contemporary joseki, or just to get a feel for what response is more popular in a certain situation, an up-to-date database of professional games really helps you out. I have created a database in a few easy steps, using only free software, and thought I'd share it here. It's really easy. (The programs used are windows-native, but this method was actually tested first on my linux machine, so I'm sure it works for Linux users as well.)

What do you need?

- 500mb of hard disk space (440 for MoyoGo and the other 60mb will allow you to store every professional game for the next decade or so. Gotta love the smallness of sgf files)

- MoyoGo: Frank de Groot's go software is easily one of the best I have used over the years. Its pattern searching feature coupled with its flexible database system make for a great combo. You can scroll down to download the free release from 2009. (That's the 313 mb download at the top)

- Recent Pro Games! You can find them at Kin's go topics page.

First, Install MoyoGo and create a folder called 'Recent Pro Games' (or whatever you would like to call it, really) somewhere convenient on your hard disk. Then you should download some pro games. The sgf's used to trigger a download window on Kin's previous site, but now they just appear as a text file in a new browser window. You'll just have to save them manually by pressing ctrl+s or navigating to file > save page as. You can put all of the sgf's in one large folder, as MoyoGo will index them by player name and date automatically. However, If you are looking for say a league game played in the 62nd Honinbo league, navigating the files might become somewhat tricky. Creating a folder structure like the one shown below is one way to order the files.



To make the games accessible for pattern search, you'll have to import them into the MoyoGo internal 'Pro' database first. Open MoyoGo, then click Database > Add Games, and follow the instructions of the import wizard. Select the 'Recent Pro Games' folder you created earlier, and then you can specify some options for the import process, for instance whether you are importing professional or amateur games, and whether you would like to exclude duplicates with endgame variations.




Depending on how many games you are importing, the import process itself might take a while. (I'm importing around 6000 games right now, so I have plenty of time to write this post ^^). After the import wizard finishes, you should have successfully updated the internal MoyoGo pro game database with recent games, and can now search the very latest pro games for positions. The end result should look something like this:



Hope this helps.

is there a way to put a check list on what games you have viewed?

The title made me expect an announcement that you're inaugurating a database that specifically caters to dummies. I could use one of those.

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So you've got an eye?
That don't impress me much

I don't think there is a direct way to see which games you have or haven't opened yet. However, you can emulate this functionality by editing a game you have viewed. After you have used the database search, the list of results can be edited. In a column that is mostly empty (for instance 'rules' or 'place') you can add something like 'studied' or viewed'. Then you just sort the games according to 'place' by clicking on the column header and volià: all games that you have already viewed will be grouped together. Just choose a game that hasn't got this tag and add it after you're done.

Hope this helps
Hushfield

Thanks Hushfield, very helpful - I was having great fun going through games using MoyoGo, then the program just stops working after a couple of days. I have to reinstall, then it's fine, again only for a couple of days.

Has anyone else experienced this, and were you able to resolve it? I'm using Windows 7 Ultimate, but have done the whole "run as administrator" thing. I can't find the initial page where this information was, so if this question has already been asked there I apologise.

Hi Hushfield

Is there anyway you can import a number of games at any one time as it is very time consuming to individually import one game at a time.

Collective sgf of tournaments would be useful if possible.

Thanks