"A Master of Go", iOS/iPadOS Go AI app

[Pippen]

Some questions after stumbling over this program due to an advice in another thread:

1. Does Master of Go give you several choices (with % and playouts and colors for good (green) and not so good (red)) of moves like Lizzie?
2. Does Master of Go give u the chance to let AI play against itself, especially after loading a game to play for example AI vs. AI from move 15 on?
3. Is the AI stronger than Leela 20x256 (which I use right now)?
4. Are there any main differences between Lizzie/LZ (which I use now) and Master of Go?
5. The payment is 13 $, is it a one time payment and such one that you get all features at once?

[y_ich]

Pippen san,

Thank you for your interest in "A Master of Go"!

1. Does Master of Go give you several choices (with % and playouts and colors for good (green) and not so good (red)) of moves like Lizzie?

Study mode on the app is quite similar to Lizzie. I implemented Lizzie-like UI by permission of Lizzie author.

2. Does Master of Go give u the chance to let AI play against itself, especially after loading a game to play for example AI vs. AI from move 15 on?

You can "paste" an SGF string for game and can let AIs continue to play.

3. Is the AI stronger than Leela 20x256 (which I use right now)?

A14 iPad Air runs Leela Zero 40b weight at more than 140 nps, so maybe it runs 20b at more than 280 nps.
It runs KataGo 40b weight, which is optional item, at more than 120 nps.
But if your iPad/iPhone is older than A14 processor, it runs them at less than 70 nps.
If your iPad/iPhone is older than A12 processor, it runs them quite slowly.

4. Are there any main differences between Lizzie/LZ (which I use now) and Master of Go?

The app was strongly inspired by Lizzie.
You may gat some comments from participants of this thread.

5. The payment is 13 $, is it a one time payment and such one that you get all features at once?

It is one time payment but KataGo engine is optional.
You need $9.99 to unlock KataGo engine. It is also one time payment.
If you are interested in scoring/estimating score, you need to buy virtual coins.


I hope that these information will help you.

[y_ich]

Grünauersan,

I have disabled to release the app for macOS for mainly two reasons.

1. I haven't confirm whether it works on M1 Mac since I don't have M1 Mac yet.
2. I have a plan to modify the layout for macOS. The current layout is for only iPad/iPhone.

And I don't decide that I will release it as a new version or as a new app. It depends on total amount of efforts for new layout.

When Apple will release a new MacBook Air with its weight under 1kg, I will definitely buy it then release the app.
Please wait for a while.

[Pippen]

So I bought the app, but I can just start a game or study, not upload a sgf. How‘s that?

Also can someone give me a rough strength estimation of

Leela Master GX89
Leela Zero 287
SAI 734

in rough terms of 1d or 6d or 1p or better than any pro etc.

[y_ich]

Pippen san,

Thank you for purchasing the app!

To open an SGF file, please use share button/menu on some filer app such as preinstalled "File" app.
When you open share menu, you will see the app icon to open the file.

Or if you want to save a game on the app as SGF, please use a share button on main menu of the app right after finishing studying the game.

Depending your device, every weight may play as super-human level except for reading ladders and handicap games.
Reading ladders needs many playouts, so you need to give enough time to AI.

Optional KataGo engine works well for both reading ladders and handicap games.

I hope that the information above will help you.

[jkal]

Hi y_ich san,

First of all, thanks for the apps. I really enjoy using it.
I don't have a powerful PC so having this app really makes my iPad Pro purchase guilt-free.

I wanted to bring to your attention a performance problem when using Katago on iPadOS 15.
I know that iPadOS 15 is still in beta, so I'm not trying to complain about it here.
I'm running the apps with Katago on my 2018 iPad Pro 11 on iPadOS 15 beta 4.
The performance drops significantly for the Katago engine.
When running with the 40b, the number of playouts dropped to an average of 1 per second.
When running with the 10b, the number of playouts dropped to an average of about 35-40 per second.
The performance for the other engine doesn't seem to be affected. I don't really use the other engine so I can't confirm this.
I tried to tweak the settings around but doesn't seem to help in improving the performance.
I also tried to delete and reinstall the app as well.

I hope this helps.
Lastly, I really like the updates visualizing the battlefield. Great work!

[y_ich]

jkal san,

Thank you for using the app!
And also thank you to let me know the issue on iPadOS 15.

I will investigate it right after releasing iPadOS 15 or possibly its Release Candidate.

[elliotdong]

Hi, I would like to know if the app could still work on the new M1 chip Ipad pro? I supposed the A14 new Ipad air would be Ok. Any test about this?

[Limeztone]

It works great on the M1 iPad!
It's magnitudes faster!
Just amazing!

edit: removed the wrong quote

[Limeztone]

Hi, I would like to know if the app could still work on the new M1 chip Ipad pro? I supposed the A14 new Ipad air would be Ok. Any test about this?

I quoted the wrong post

The M1 iPad works and is way faster than my other iPad pro.

For an arbitrary mid game position (b40s985 net) :
iPad pro with A12X chip : 1437 playouts with 100 sec thinking time.
iPad pro with M1 chip : 29763 playouts with 100 sec thinking time.

[elliotdong]

Hi, I would like to know if the app could still work on the new M1 chip Ipad pro? I supposed the A14 new Ipad air would be Ok. Any test about this?

I quoted the wrong post

The M1 iPad works and is way faster than my other iPad pro.

For an arbitrary mid game position (b40s985 net) :
iPad pro with A12X chip : 1437 playouts with 100 sec thinking time.
iPad pro with M1 chip : 29763 playouts with 100 sec thinking time.

Thanks for the reply！

[goame]

Hi, I would like to know if the app could still work on the new M1 chip Ipad pro? I supposed the A14 new Ipad air would be Ok. Any test about this?

I quoted the wrong post

The M1 iPad works and is way faster than my other iPad pro.

For an arbitrary mid game position (b40s985 net) :
iPad pro with A12X chip : 1437 playouts with 100 sec thinking time.
iPad pro with M1 chip : 29763 playouts with 100 sec thinking time.

Thanks.
Does it use the cpu cores or gpu cores or the neural engine cores?
M1X will double the cpu fire cores.
GPU will have 32 cores instead of 8 cores. This will change playlists from 30000 to 120000!!
Neural engine / metal I don’t know but maybe they will double the cores too.

[wineandgolover]

Hi y_ich,

I updated my A13 iPhone 11 Pro to iOS 15, (release version not beta), in preparation for migrating to a new A15 iPhone 13 Pro.

I can confirm jkal's findings that katago has greatly slowed in the new OS. I’m getting maybe 7 visits per second on version 5.15 with the updated b40c256-s1000 engine. Under ios 14 I believe I got 30-40 visits per second.

It’s not just the engine that is slower, the whole app is sluggish, for example, placing a stone can take 1-3 seconds after tapping.

On my older iPad Air with A12 Processor and iOS 14, I’m getting 17 visits per second, and the app feels fine.

I sure hope you can fix the app for iOS 15 soon!

Thank you.

jkal san,

Thank you for using the app!
And also thank you to let me know the issue on iPadOS 15.

I will investigate it right after releasing iPadOS 15 or possibly its Release Candidate.

[y_ich]

The version 5.15.1 has been released.

1. fixed a problem that KataGo ran extremely slowly on iPadOS/iOS 15 depending on devices. As a bonus, you may get performance boost on iPadOS/iOS 15 compared with on iPadOS/iOS 14.

Enjoy!

[jkal]

The version 5.15.1 has been released.

1. fixed a problem that KataGo ran extremely slowly on iPadOS/iOS 15 depending on devices. As a bonus, you may get performance boost on iPadOS/iOS 15.

Enjoy!

Thanks y_ich san for the quick updates!
Just updated the apps and KataGo runs a lot faster on my iPad than before.
Great work!