Dear all,

Since around 2005 I've sold a tesuji solver (MadLab), building upon an algorithm I had been investigating for some time. The solver site has recently been offline, but it is now available again, and I've decided to make the solver FREE in its full unlimited version:

http://www.t-t.dk/madlab

So feel free to play around with it. In addition to solving open-space tesuji's, it can scan/analyze whole games for tesuji's, and there are also 997 tesuji problems harvested from real games.

I am aware that the monte-carlo Go programs are getting stronger, but I guess MadLab could still find its use concerning the question: Can this/these block(s) of stones be captured or not? If MadLab answers yes, the answer is definitive, since the algorithm guarantees correctness. In this sense, the software is in the same spirit as GoTools (used for life-and-death problems). MadLab can also solve (simple) connection- and eye-problems by the way. See http://www.t-t.dk/madlab/info regarding what MadLab can and cannot do, and its strength.

Why am I providing MadLab for free? Well, following the release of MadLab I had two kids, and more importantly I also began developing open-source software for solving economic models. So I got into a severe zeitnot regarding Go algorithms, but I still think about them whenever I can. I might continue Go programming in the future when things settle a bit more -- as any Go programmer knows: Go programming is just great fun!

Best regards,

-Thomas Thomsen

Note: The solver is written in Java, and there is a Windows and Linux installer, so installation is easy (and Mac users should be able to use the .jar file). I've just tested it on Windows 7, and it seems ok. If you already have Java on your system (most probable), you may use the small installer (~ 3MB) -- the large installer bundles a Java runtime.