Ancient Go

Ancient Go is a 3D version of Go, a strategy game in which you place stones on a board to surround territory and capture your opponent’s stones. Its rules are quick to learn, though the game has not been completely mastered.

Learn and play

Tutorials introduce the game, with visual hints for atari, stones in atari, ko and snapbacks—situations that can be difficult for new players. You can turn these hints off in the options. The game supports AGA, Chinese and Japanese rules, selectable in the options, with AGA as the default.

You can play against AI opponents or challenge Steam friends. The beginner-focused AI is designed for new players, while a second AI provides harder challenges. The AI combines Fuego with a custom AI and is tuned to approximate 22 kyu, 18 kyu, 14 kyu and 2 dan. It performs well tactically, but can miss broader strategy, particularly on larger boards. You can replace Fuego.exe in the working directory with a newer or custom version.

Online play

Online games use free accounts on the OGS server. Quickmatch options cover common board sizes, and you can also create custom open games or send Steam challenges. OGS has 400,000 registered users, with around 2,000 logged in at any one time. Ancient Go is not affiliated with OGS. Stone removal uses the Fuego AI to mark dead stones, or you can set them manually.