Setting up and solving your own problems

When MadLab starts, it does not have a board opened. So first open a new board by clicking the "Create new game" icon . You are asked about the board size: choose 9, and a 9x9 board opens up. Now click the "Add black or white stone(s)" button . The cursor is transformed to a cross-hair pointer, and you may add stones on the board by clicking once (black) or twice (white) -- clicking once more removes the stone. Try entering the following position:

When you have entered the position, right-click on one of the two white stones. A popup menu appears: choose "Capture". MadLab thinks briefly and answers. Above the board MadLab tells you that the problem has lambda-order n=3, how many positions MadLab looked at, and that the solving move is at C6. Notice that the cursor is normal again, meaning that if you click on the board, it is a move for the White player (since MadLab has just played a black move).

Now you may try to play a white stone at D6 in order to escape (just click at D6: it is White to move, as indicated by the button). After this, you hit the "Search: Obtain goal" button , and MadLab answers at D7. The plus sign in the button indicates that the program is asked to obtain the goal when you press it. (Note also the black stone in the magnifying glass, to remind you that clicking the button asks for a black move.)

Try retracting all the moves by means of the "Delete last move" button , until there are none left to delete. Now click the "Set search goal(s)" button  (the small down-arrow button is situated next to the  button). This pops up a window showing you how the goal is set. This should look ok, and you now hit the the "Search: Avoid goal" button  (alternatively you might  right-click one of the white stones, and choose "Escape"). MadLab starts looking for white escaping moves. This 'avoid goal' search works a bit differently from the 'obtain goal' search you tried before. To explain it briefly, the marked/colored intersections are moves that may work for White, whereas moves that are not marked are guarenteed not to work. The 'avoid-goal' search will only stop if there are no avoiding moves at all (i.e., if White is dead no matter what he or she moves). If this is not the case, the search goes on indefinitely, trying to eliminate any remaining move candidates. You can read much more about 'avoid-goal' search and the meaning of the markers/colors here.

Abort the 'avoid-search' by clicking the "Stop search" button . This forces MadLab to play what it considers the best escaping move up to now (probably White C6, depending on how much time the program was given).

Again, retract all moves to the original position by means of the "Delete last move" button . Now hit "Add black or white stone(s)"  again, and add a white stone at B6. The position should now look like this: 

Try solving the problem by clicking "Search: Obtain goal"  again. This search will go on for a long time, and it is not obvious whether the two white stones can be captured or not. Above the board MadLab tells you the current lambda-order, the number of positions seen (in thousands; kN means kilo nodes), the search speed (thousand positions per second: kN/s), a very crude indicator of the closeness to obtaining the goal (in %), and the number of positions stored in memory. The search quickly reaches lambda-order n=4, and there does not seem to be any quick win for Black. So abort the search by clicking the "Stop search" button .

This problem is hard, but if the goal was instead to capture either the two white stones or the single white stone at B6, it would solve quickly. To see this, right-click on one of the two white stones at D5 and E5, and select "Capture 1 of 2...". This will activate a white line pointing out from the selected stone. Drag the line to the white stone at B6, and left-click. MadLab starts searching and quickly finds a way to capture at least one of these two blocks (by playing Black C5). If you click the "Set search goal(s)" button  again, you can see that this is indeed set up as a double-goal problem. If after Black C5 you try to escape with, e.g., White E7, Black ataris at E6, White plays D6, Black ataris again at C6, White plays D7, and Black now captures the other stone by playing Black B7.

The above covers the basics of entering and solving a position (but you may also want to consult the ko example below). You can also search for connections and eyes, and combine these in any way you like. All goals and combinations hereof can be set up manually via the window activated when hitting the "Set search goal(s)" button . But note that double-capture searches and connections can be launched quickly by right-clicking on a stone and dragging. Please note as well that MadLab was not designed with connection and eye-finding in mind, so these functions are experimental and relatively weak.

When playing through problems as either the attacking or defending side, you may get tired of hitting the  or  button all the time to see the computer's answer. To avoid this, you can have the computer launch a new search automatically whenever you play a stone. Set this in the menu "Options" --> "Play Mode".

MadLab can also solve ko problems. If you are interested in seeing a ko example, click the following link:

Ko example

Analyzing your own games

In addition to solving individual problems, MadLab can go through your own games hunting for single- or double-goal tesuji's.

In order to familiarize yourself with MadLab's analyzing capability, try to open a new board by clicking the "Create new game" icon . Choose board size 9, and a 9x9 board opens up. Next, try to enter the following 16 moves (simply click the intersections: do not use the "Add black or white stone(s)" facility).

These 16 moves are the beginning of a 9x9 game between two professional players (Cho Chikun (B) vs. Enda Hideki (W)). After having entered the moves, retract them all to return to the starting position ().

Now go to the menu "Actions" --> "Analyze game...". In this window you click the "Defaults" button (to make sure you are using the default settings when analyzing this game). Next press the "Analyze!" button. MadLab will start to analyze the game, and in the field above the board you can watch the progress. Wait until the analysis is finished.

When the analysis is finished, you can go through the moves one by one (by clicking  or the down-arrow on the keyboard). The first 11 moves are less interesting, since MadLab does not find any tesuji's, so go to move #12. You should see something like this: 

E3 or C4 capturable by W D3 (n=2)

Above figure: White move #12 at F3. After the white move, MadLab marks the black blocks at E3 and C4 with the labels '?2' (and connects them with a yellow line), indicating that the program has found a double-threat tesuji involving these two blocks. In the field to the right of the board, MadLab gives some information on the tesuji (White plays D3 to capture one of the two blocks, and the lambda-order is n=2). If you want to have this tesuji demonstrated, you can simply right-click on one of the black stones and choose 'Capture 1 of 2...'. You should note that the marks do not depend on which player is actually to move in the position. The fact that the black stones are marked simply means that they are vulnerable if White were to move next, no matter whether this is actually so or not.

E3 or F4 capturable by W E5 (n=2)

Above figure: Black move #13 at F4. After Black's move at F4, the above-mentioned tesuji does not work anymore. However, White has a new double-threat tesuji: namely the capture of either E3 or F4 (this tesuji starts with White connecting at E5). Note also that the white stone at E4 can be captured: this is indicated by the '?' mark.

F4 capturable by W G4 (n=1) E3 or C4 capturable by W D3 (n=2)

Above figure: White move #14 at E5. After White connects at E5, the double-threat tesuji involving the two black blocks at E3 and C4 is reactivated. In addition, Black F4 can now be captured directly (as a single-threat tesuji, starting for instance with White G4).

F4 capturable by W G3 (n=2) E3 or C4 capturable by W D3 (n=2)

Above figure: Black move #15 at F2. This move threatens the white stone at F3, whereas the black stones at E3 and C4 are still vulnerable. The only way to capture black F4 is now for white to play G3 (which is what happens below).

F2 or E3 capturable by W E2 (n=1) E3 or C4 capturable by W D3 (n=2) F2 or C4 capturable by W E2 (n=2)

Above figure: White move #16 at G3. After this move, the black stone at F4 is dead, which is marked by a white circle (meaning that the intersection can be considered white territory). This means that even if Black moves first and tries to save the stone, White can still capture it. Note also that there is now a double-threat tesuji involving the black stones at F2 and E3. In addition there is a double-threat tesuji involving F2 and C4, so all in all there are three double-threat tesuji's regarding these three black blocks. This cannot be seen from the diagram, since the yellow lines overlap, but it is shown in the text to the right of the board.

The precision of the analysis depends upon the analyze-options given. The more nodes per analyzed goal MadLab is given, the more the program may see. You may also restrict the maximal lambda-order for normal and double-threat tesuji's. Limiting the maximal lambda-order for double-threat tesuji's to 2 may overlook some tesuji's, but it speeds up the analysis a great deal. Recommended parameters for relatively fast analysis is 50.000 nodes per goal, and max lambda-order 3 for normal tesuji's and 2 for double-threat tesuji's. Analyze guarantees that all tesuji's within the given parameters are seen (for double-threat tesuji's this is guaranteed no matter how far away from each other the two considered blocks of stones might be).

If the game contains variations, you may ask MadLab to analyze these as well (alternatively they are ignored).