# Little Go > Open-source iOS app for playing the ancient strategy game of Go. (iPhone/iPad app by Patrick Naf Moser.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/little-go/id490753989 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Patrick Naf Moser](https://appshunter.io/developer/490753992) - Category: Games, Board, Strategy - Price: Free - Rating: 3.32/5 from 120 App Store ratings · 74 written reviews indexed - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 16.0 · 51 MB - Languages: English - Released: 2011-12-23 - Data updated: 2026-08-02 - Monetization: free - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/little-go/id490753989/reviews.md ## What is Little Go? Little Go is a free and open source iOS application that lets you play the game of Go on the iPhone or iPad. You can play against another human (on the same device), or against the computer. The computer player is powered by the open source software library Fuego (http://fuego.sf.net/). The minimum requirement for running this version of Little Go is iOS 16.0. Features: - Board sizes between 7x7 and 19x19 (start a new game to change the board size) - Let the computer player suggest a move or immediately play the move for you - Calculate the score at any time during the game (area scoring is the default, territory scoring can be selected at the start of a new game) - Adjust the computer's playing strength and resign behaviour by selecting from a number of presets, or by fine-tuning advanced settings - Play even games, or games with 2-9 handicap stones (fixed stone placement) - Select from 5 pre-defined rulesets when you start a new game, or adjust game rules to your preference (komi, ko rule, area/territory scoring system, number of passes to end game, resume play by alternating/non-alternating play, four passes end game) - Optionally play with time limits (Main time only, Overtime only, Main time + Overtime), with a choice from 5 Overtime systems - Place arbitrary black and white stones for initial board setup before a game starts - View board positions for moves played earlier during the game - View and create game variations - Discard moves (aka "undo") - Display move numbers and coordinate labels - Zoom & scroll board - Create and edit board and move annotations (e.g. good/bad move, good position for black/white, etc.) and add textual notes to a position - Mark intersections on the board with symbols, markers and labels, and draw arrows or lines on the board - Display player influence (aka territory statistics) for an estimate who owns an area - Computer vs. computer game for entertainment - Save & load games to/from the archive using the SGF file format - Support for almost all properties of the SGF file format, with strict conformance to the specification - Use file sharing to transfer saved games from your iOS device to your computer, and vice versa - Import/export game files from/to other apps on your device (e.g. Mail, DropBox) - In-app user manual - Submit bug report email from inside the app (yes, this *is* a feature :-)) - For the technically inclined: Watch what happens behind the scenes when Little Go and Fuego talk to each other over the Go Text Protocol (GTP) Your contribution in any form (coding, UI design, testing, bug reports, creating an app video preview, website design) is welcome - please contact me or visit the support website to find out more. A note about the project state: Several years of development have gone into Little Go since its inception in January 2011. The app now has a feature set that is, I believe, quite nice :-) for a free program. My main focus therefore lies on fixing any remaining bugs (of which I am sure there are plenty) and keeping the app running under future versions of iOS. Little Go is released under the Apache License 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0). ## Key features - Multiple board sizes (7x7 to 19x19) - Play against AI or human opponent - Adjustable AI strength - Score calculation (area/territory) - Handicap stone placement - Customizable rulesets - Save and load games ## What do users think of Little Go? Overall sentiment: mixed **Pros** - ✨ Free and open source - 🎮 Excellent AI engine - 🎛️ Highly customizable settings - 🆓 No ads or in-app purchases - 🎨 Pleasant graphics - 💡 Great learning tool - 🔄 Good for reviewing games - 🤝 Good for playing with friends **Cons** - ❓ Unclear interface - 🕹️ Difficult to place stones - 📈 Very difficult for beginners - 🔋 High battery consumption - 🤔 AI can be too strong - 🖱️ Small buttons - 😵 Frustrating user experience **Commonly reported bugs** - Cannot pass to end the game - Human player cannot place stones (sometimes) - AI makes illegal moves - AI resigns too early - Undo button glitches - Game crashes - AI plays the same game repeatedly - Scoring inaccuracies - Forward/fast forward buttons too close **Most requested features** - Add a tutorial for beginners - Improve UI clarity and intuitiveness - Add a demo board for teaching - Add a rematch option - Add Game Center support for turn-based matches - Option to turn off auto-scoring - Add a Windows program version ## Recent user reviews (10 of 74) All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/little-go/id490753989/reviews.md ### 3/5 — Such an unclear interface *2026-05-03, version 2.0.1* I was hoping this app would be great, because I'd like to learn Go. Nicely, it is free, with no ads, no in-app purchases, and the source code is free too. So, huge kudos to the author. That said, I have no idea how to pass, the weird magnifying class view makes me put things in the wrong place, and there are various buttons with no label or hints as to what they do. It is a very unclear UI and instead of learning Go, the game is a little frustrating. I appreciate the developer says in their reply one should be able to figure it out by experimentation, but I don’t think that absolves from an unintuitive UI. ### 3/5 — Such an unclear interface *2026-03-15, version 2.0.1* I was hoping this app would be great, because I'd like to learn Go. Nicely, it is free, with no ads, no in-app purchases, and the source code is free too. So, huge kudos to the author. That said, I have no idea how to pass, the weird magnifying class view makes me put things in the wrong place, and there are various buttons with no label or hints as to what they do. It is a very unclear UI and instead of learning Go, the game is a little frustrating. ### 3/5 — Great potential but some negative reviews are correct… *2026-03-01, version 2.0.1* Hey Patrick. Big fan of Go here. Game actually looks really great compared to some other ones I’ve tried. You did great. That being said, some of the reviews that said the human player can’t place any stones are correct. I’m on iPhone 14 ProMax with the most recent iOS update as of 03/2026 Also I’m a developer interested in helping with this OpenSource project ### 5/5 — It’s the best and absolute favorite go app *2025-11-30, version 2.0.1* This is the best app for go play. It’s packed with features, very convenient, open source, and completely free—unbelievable. I wish I could donate, but I can’t find how. Thank you for creating this excellent project and for continuing to develop it. ### 5/5 — It’s very feature full and nice *2025-08-10, version 2.0.1* I am novice player of the game of Go. I like this game very much. I almost always lose, but that is OK. I do not understand how to end a game and not save it. I can “resign”, and that works. But often I do not want to save the game. I just want to learn from having played it. I would like a single-click control that would end the game and reset the board to empty. Is there such a control? ### 1/5 — ???? *2025-05-07, version 2.0.1* No idea why it has such a high rating. The interface is terrible and not at all intuitive. ### 1/5 — No way to pass *2024-03-25, version 1.7.1* OK, looks like the App Store deleted my last review so I’ll be short and say it again: I have spent a half hour trying to figure out how you “pass” to end the game. The instructions say that that’s how the game ends. I’ve been playing go for years, I know that that’s how you end the game. There is no pass button in this app, nowhere, I have looked for 30 minutes and there is nothing that lets you pass.All you can do is resign the game, and every time you start a new game it tells you there’s a game in progress, and i hate to complain about a free app but a go game without any way to pass and end the game is ridiculous and frustrating, and it gets old very, very, very quickly. Seriously, there is no excuse for it. This game has a million long screens of five point instructional text, and it talks about passing several times, and it never tells you how to actually do it in the program.There’s simply is no way that I can find to tell it that I want to pass. It’s incredibly annoying, and I absolutely, after just three or four games, can not use this app because of it.It’s just plain annoying that’s something so necessary is missing, Or, if it’s there somewhere, so well hidden that in 30 minutes of looking for it I was unable to find it. Also, it always plays the same game: if you have a particular opening move that you use, it will always respond the same exact way, there is no variation in its play at all.Playing the same game over and over again gets old very quickly. oh, also, the setting to undo 2 moves at once just plain doesn’t work, you have to always tap twice to get back and redo your last move, which is yet another really annoying little thing glitch. and that’s when hitting the button works, which it doesn’t always, sometimes it’s just plain doesn’t register because it’s so tiny, so you sit there stabbing at your phone with your index finger over and over and over again, hoping that you will get to where you want, when you really should’ve just had to click it once. again, hate to complain about a free app, but it’s just got too many seriously frustrating little quirks,The UX design is truly terrible. ### 3/5 — Tough to configure bots *2024-01-10, version 1.7.1* I’m awful at Go. I just learned the basic rules a few minutes ago. Using advanced settings to tune down the bot, I’m stuck somewhere between getting demolished by a level 1 bot and having a bot that resigns within 3 moves. Nice app, would be good for playing with friends, just need a little more granularity on tuning bot strength. ### 1/5 — Utter trash *2022-12-27, version 1.7.1* Wasted my time. Does not even work. ### 1/5 — Aesthetically pleasing, but absolutely ruthless *2022-08-28, version 1.6.0* Yet to win a single game, even against the lowest difficulty level and with the computer’s suggestions. It just gets halfway through then tells me to give up. Needs a tutorial or an even easier setting for beginners. ## Frequently asked questions about Little Go ### What is Little Go? Little Go is a free and open-source iOS application designed for playing the strategic board game of Go. It allows users to play against another person on the same device or against a computer AI powered by the Fuego software library. ### What are the key features of Little Go? Key features include adjustable board sizes from 7x7 to 19x19, the ability to play against a computer with adjustable strength, score calculation, handicap stone placement, customizable rulesets, and the option to save and load games. Users can also analyze moves, view game variations, and add annotations. ### Is Little Go free to use? Yes, Little Go is a free application. It is open source and released under the Apache License 2.0, meaning there are no costs associated with downloading or playing the game. ### What are the system requirements for Little Go? The minimum requirement for running this version of Little Go is iOS 15.0. The app is compatible with iPhone and iPad devices running this operating system or newer. ### How can I play with a friend using Little Go? You can play against another human opponent on the same device. The app also supports saving and loading games, as well as importing and exporting game files from/to other apps, which can facilitate playing with friends across different devices or platforms. ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 2.1.0 — 2026-05-08 Known issues ------------ - iPhone devices only: On iOS 26 versions older than 26.4 (i.e. iOS 26.0.x through 26.3.x) the app crashes when you rearrange tabs ("More" tab > tap "Edit" button > attempt to put one of the tabs in the "More" section on the main tab bar). If you are affected by this, upgrade your device to iOS 26.4 or newer. Features -------- - The app now supports time-based play (#29). The default mode to play Go in this app is without any time limit. If you like, however, you can now give yourself (and your opponent) a limited amount of time to make your moves. You can read all about the details of this feature in the user manual under "Playing the game > Timed play". - The app now has full support for recording the game result for the game's main variation (#414). The app automatically sets the result when the game ends, but the user can override the automatically determined result in the Game Info screen. You can read all about the details of this feature in the user manual under "Playing the game > The game result". Thanks go to user Deionus for requesting this feature. - The app now supports entering 18 different so-called "Game Info" items (#384). These are pieces of information that describe various aspects of the game being played, such as the dates when the game was played, player names, player ranks, the location where the game was played, etc.. You can read all about the details of this feature in the user manual under "Other features > Game info screen > The "Info" tab". For more features, and more details on each item, see the in-game Changelog. The user manual is also available from within the app. Improvements and changes ------------------------ - The touch area size of several buttons has been increased (#441), notably for the buttons with which to navigate back and forth between the nodes of the current game variation. Thanks go to Merlin Faidherbe for requesting this improvement. - The Status Text is now shown in its own box just above the Go board (#440). - The app now writes its name ("Little Go") and version into the "AP" property when saving an SGF file (#445). For more improvements/changes, and more details on each item, see the in-game Changelog. Bugfixes -------- - A bug was fixed that could have had potentially unexpected effects when changing settings that use a green toggle button (#442), such as toggling the wrong setting. - Fixed a bug that on iPad devices caused the size of some text entry fields to be reduced way too much (commit 88ea7f18). Regressions ----------- - Fixed a bug that prevented the app from writing log files when logging is enabled by the user in the "Diagnostics" tab (#438). The bug was introduced in version 2.0.0 of the app. Technical changes ----------------- - Support for iOS 15 has been dropped (#437). The minimum required version is now iOS 16.0. - See the in-game Changelog for a list of devices that are no longer supported. - Also see see the Changelog for other technical changes. ### 2.0.1 — 2024-05-12 This is the Little Go bugfix release 2.0.1. It contains a fix for a bug that caused the app and Fuego to become out of sync when a game with handicap was started, or when a game with black or white setup stones was loaded from the archive (#430). The previous release was the Little Go feature release 2.0.0. An overview of the changes follows, for more details read the in-game Changelog. Features -------- Support for game variations (#380): - The app now supports displaying game variations. For that purpose a new view was added at the bottom of the Play tab. The new view displays the tree of nodes formed by all variations of the game. - The tree view can be resized, zoomed and scrolled, and you can tap on any node to change the game board to display the content of that node. - The app also supports creating new game variations: Go back to an older node and play a move and the app will automatically insert a new game variation. - A number of new settings were added under "Settings > Tree view" and "Settings > Game variation" that let you control various aspects of how the tree view is rendered and how game variations are inserted. - If you do not want to work with game variations you can also use the settings to hide the tree view completely and disable creation of new game variations. Improvements and changes ------------------------ User manual overhaul (#419): - The user manual has been rewritten from scratch, complete with icons, illustrations, a few animatons and hyperlinks. - Besides the in-app version of the user manual there is now also an identical online version that can be accessed in any web browser at https://littlego-usermanual.herzbube.ch/. - Many users have had trouble with the dry text-only user manual of the past, often being unable to match textual descriptions of icons to the actual buttons in the app. Hopefully this is now an issue of the past. Many thanks go to Andreas Fischlin who gave me the impetus to take on this long overdue task. For more improvements/changes see the in-game Changelog. Bugfixes -------- - In-app web views now continue to display their content after an external link is opened in Safari (#428). Affected views: Help tab, About tab, Credits tab, Source Code tab, and any one of the entries on the Licenses and the Changelog tabs. - The app no longer crashes when a handicap stone is removed while board setup mode is active (#399). - Fixed a bug where sometimes handicap stones were not properly marked up while board setup mode was active (#400). For more bugfixes see the in-game Changelog. Regressions ----------- - Fixed the "Select player" screen to show a non-transparent background color even when no players are available (#421). Technical changes ----------------- - Support for iOS 9 up to 14 has been dropped (#409). The minimum required version is now iOS 15.0. - See the in-game Changelog for a list of devices that are no longer supported. - Also see see the Changelog for other technical changes. ### 2.0.0 — 2024-05-10 This is the Little Go feature release 2.0.0. An overview of the changes follows, for more details read the in-game Changelog. Features -------- Support for game variations (#380): - The app now supports displaying game variations. For that purpose a new view was added at the bottom of the Play tab. The new view displays the tree of nodes formed by all variations of the game. - The tree view can be resized, zoomed and scrolled, and you can tap on any node to change the game board to display the content of that node. - The app also supports creating new game variations: Go back to an older node and play a move and the app will automatically insert a new game variation. - A number of new settings were added under "Settings > Tree view" and "Settings > Game variation" that let you control various aspects of how the tree view is rendered and how game variations are inserted. - If you do not want to work with game variations you can also use the settings to hide the tree view completely and disable creation of new game variations. Improvements and changes ------------------------ User manual overhaul (#419): - The user manual has been rewritten from scratch, complete with icons, illustrations, a few animatons and hyperlinks. - Besides the in-app version of the user manual there is now also an identical online version that can be accessed in any web browser at https://littlego-usermanual.herzbube.ch/. - Many users have had trouble with the dry text-only user manual of the past, often being unable to match textual descriptions of icons to the actual buttons in the app. Hopefully this is now an issue of the past. Many thanks go to Andreas Fischlin who gave me the impetus to take on this long overdue task. For more improvements/changes see the in-game Changelog. Bugfixes -------- - In-app web views now continue to display their content after an external link is opened in Safari (#428). Affected views: Help tab, About tab, Credits tab, Source Code tab, and any one of the entries on the Licenses and the Changelog tabs. - The app no longer crashes when a handicap stone is removed while board setup mode is active (#399). - Fixed a bug where sometimes handicap stones were not properly marked up while board setup mode was active (#400). For more bugfixes see the in-game Changelog. Regressions ----------- - Fixed the "Select player" screen to show a non-transparent background color even when no players are available (#421). Technical changes ----------------- - Support for iOS 9 up to 14 has been dropped (#409). The minimum required version is now iOS 15.0. - See the in-game Changelog for a list of devices that are no longer supported. - Also see see the Changelog for other technical changes. ### 1.7.1 — 2022-09-23 This is the Little Go bugfix release 1.7.1. It contains two fixes for bugs that caused the app to crash (#397 and #398). The previous release was the Little Go feature release 1.7.0. An overview of the changes follows, for more details read the in-game Changelog. Features -------- - The app now supports reading and writing of all SGF node annotation and move annotation properties (#339). The app also displays these properties' values and lets you edit them. This means that you can now add a valuation to a move (e.g. good/bad move) and/or to the entire board position (e.g. good position for black/white), designate a board position to be a "hotspot" (e.g. it contains a game-deciding move), annotate a board position with an estimated score, and finally you can add textual notes to a board position. Annotation data is displayed by, and can be edited via, an all-new annotation view. - The app now supports reading and writing of all SGF markup properties (#349). Except for the DD property (dim parts of the board), the app also displays these properties' values and lets you edit them. This means that you can now mark intersections on the board with 5 different symbols (circle, square, triangle, "X" mark, "selected" symbol), place single-character letter markers or single-digit number markers, place a free-form label text, and finally you can draw arrows or plain lines on the board. The app has an all-new markup editing mode for this (accessible via menu icon) that includes drag & drop support to move around existing markup. - In the Settings screen there are now a number of user preferences that affect how markup is drawn and that let you tweak some aspects of the markup editing process. Improvements and changes ------------------------ - The general user interface (UI) of Little Go now looks and behaves the same on all device types (#371). This unification of UI layouts became necessary because the effort to support different layouts proved to be too much. Also the unification provided the opportunity to get rid of many behind-the-scenes hacks. The main changes are: 1) Smaller iPhone devices which only support the Portrait orientation UI layout, now display board positions and the navigation buttons differently than before. 2) Larger iPhone devices now display a tab bar when in Landscape orientation (alas, reducing the size of the board). 3) iPad devices now always show board positions when in Portrait orientation, and when in Landscape orientation they display board positions and navigation buttons differently than before. - Changed the icon of the "More Game Actions" button (#377). The previous icon was a "curved arrow" symbol, which seemed to confuse many users so that they couldn't find important actions, such as "New game". The new icon is the established "hamburger menu" icon, which should now more clearly indicate that the button pops up a menu with actions to select from. - Button boxes and the board position list now support Dark mode by switching to a dark background color (#378 and #379). Thanks to Peter Waldispühl for reporting this. - For more improvements/changes see the Changelog. Bugfixes -------- - Board position zero (representing the start of the game) sometimes did not display handicap and komi. This is now fixed (#374). - Various speculative fixes for potential app crashes. See the Changelog for details. Regressions ----------- - A bug was introduced in version 1.6.0 that would cause Ko detection to fail after the app was suspended and was forced to restart by the operating system (a relatively common occurrence). This is now fixed (#372). Because Little Go has struggled with Ko detection many times in the past, this regression was particularly painful. Technical changes ----------------- - See Changelog. ### 1.7.0 — 2022-09-18 This is the Little Go feature release 1.7.0. An overview of the changes follows, for more details read the in-game Changelog. Features -------- - The app now supports reading and writing of all SGF node annotation and move annotation properties (#339). The app also displays these properties' values and lets you edit them. This means that you can now add a valuation to a move (e.g. good/bad move) and/or to the entire board position (e.g. good position for black/white), designate a board position to be a "hotspot" (e.g. it contains a game-deciding move), annotate a board position with an estimated score, and finally you can add textual notes to a board position. Annotation data is displayed by, and can be edited via, an all-new annotation view. - The app now supports reading and writing of all SGF markup properties (#349). Except for the DD property (dim parts of the board), the app also displays these properties' values and lets you edit them. This means that you can now mark intersections on the board with 5 different symbols (circle, square, triangle, "X" mark, "selected" symbol), place single-character letter markers or single-digit number markers, place a free-form label text, and finally you can draw arrows or plain lines on the board. The app has an all-new markup editing mode for this (accessible via menu icon) that includes drag & drop support to move around existing markup. - In the Settings screen there are now a number of user preferences that affect how markup is drawn and that let you tweak some aspects of the markup editing process. Improvements and changes ------------------------ - The general user interface (UI) of Little Go now looks and behaves the same on all device types (#371). This unification of UI layouts became necessary because the effort to support different layouts proved to be too much. Also the unification provided the opportunity to get rid of many behind-the-scenes hacks. The main changes are: 1) Smaller iPhone devices which only support the Portrait orientation UI layout, now display board positions and the navigation buttons differently than before. 2) Larger iPhone devices now display a tab bar when in Landscape orientation (alas, reducing the size of the board). 3) iPad devices now always show board positions when in Portrait orientation, and when in Landscape orientation they display board positions and navigation buttons differently than before. - Changed the icon of the "More Game Actions" button (#377). The previous icon was a "curved arrow" symbol, which seemed to confuse many users so that they couldn't find important actions, such as "New game". The new icon is the established "hamburger menu" icon, which should now more clearly indicate that the button pops up a menu with actions to select from. - Button boxes and the board position list now support Dark mode by switching to a dark background color (#378 and #379). Thanks to Peter Waldispühl for reporting this. - For more improvements/changes see the Changelog. Bugfixes -------- - Board position zero (representing the start of the game) sometimes did not display handicap and komi. This is now fixed (#374). - Various speculative fixes for potential app crashes. See the Changelog for details. Regressions ----------- - A bug was introduced in version 1.6.0 that would cause Ko detection to fail after the app was suspended and was forced to restart by the operating system (a relatively common occurrence). This is now fixed (#372). Because Little Go has struggled with Ko detection many times in the past, this regression was particularly painful. 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User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-02.*