SGF utils

As a software developer I spend great part of my time inside a text editor, in particular, Emacs. Fortunately, Go game records in SGF format are nothing but text, so I wrote some utilities to help dealing with these files.

For example:

• I like to rename my SGF files in a consistent way: 

[date]_[black player]_[white player]_[result].sgf 

This involves parsing the SGF file and searching for the fields [DT], [PB], [PW] and [RE].
To do this I simply put the cursor over the file when in Dired mode and type

M-x sgf-rename-file-dired

where M-x means pressing the Alt key and the x.

• Selecting all files in which I won or lost. In Dired mode type

M-x sgf-mark-wins

SGF files in which I won are selected

• Rotate/mirror the board. 

Something weird that I noticed in IGS: if you download the file directly from GoPanda2 (Pandanet client), it's rotated compared to the one you get when downloading from the web.


If curious, you can grab the code from here and here. It's in two files because one of them has the utilities, and the other is an incomplete mode that I started, that simply fulfills my needs, such as syntax highlighting, for example.

IGS Blacklisting

If you were wondering how to blacklist somebody on IGS, this is how: (and yes, it deserves a post since I find it a bit contrived, and discovered it by accident, not when I searched for it).

First click on Member search.

Once you're on the member's page, click on Register in refusals.

The Refuse option (in the first image) show's all the people in your blacklist.

I don't like players who run away by disconnecting from the server when they're loosing, so I add them to this list to avoid playing with them again.

A similar method applies if you wish to add to your favorites list, or request friendship.

Pattern search

I added to the links section on the right, an entry for the excellent Waltheri's go pattern search web application. It's very useful for searching go positions such as joseki and fuseki in professional games. When studying, if you aren't sure how some joseki is played, just create a position on the board and you will find all occurrences of given position in pro games with continuations which have been played.

The site is not only beautiful, but works very well, very responsive, and easy to use.