How to play SmartGo Player on Mac

Game summary

Play the ancient game of Go against your iPhone or iPad. Starting with the empty board, your goal is to surround territory — the simple rules of Go lead to a complex and beautiful game. This 4000-year-old board game originating in China is also known as igo (囲碁), wéiqí (围棋), or baduk (바둑). SmartGo Player includes a tutorial that teaches you the fundamentals of Go step-by-step. Each rule and tactic is followed by a number of problems that let you practice and fully grasp the concept. If you enjoy strategy board games like chess or Othello, you'll love Go. SmartGo automatically adjusts the handicap to keep the game challenging, for beginners as well as seasoned players. Start with 9x9, and unlock 11x11 and 13x13 as your play improves. With a strong engine based on the latest research into Monte Carlo techniques, this is the game to beat. Features: - 9x9, 11x11, 13x13, and 19x19 boards - Strong game engine - Fast response (adjustable) - Automatic handicap adjustment on 9x9, 11x11, 13x13 - Manual choice of handicap and board size up to 19x19 - Track level per user - Computer resigns when too far behind (can be turned off) - Territory estimator - Hint - Undo - Replay - Tutorial with over 100 problems SmartGo Player is optimized for a quick and challenging game of Go against the computer. SmartGo Kifu is designed as a versatile tool for Go players who want to study professional games, practice Go problems, record their games, as well as play against the computer. Enjoy!
First released: May 2009

Play SmartGo Player on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play SmartGo Player on a Mac is through Parallels, which allows you to virtualize a Windows machine on Macs. The setup is very easy and it works for Apple Silicon Macs as well as for older Intel-based Macs.

Parallels supports the latest version of DirectX and OpenGL, allowing you to play the latest PC games on any Mac. The latest version of DirectX is up to 20% faster.

Our favorite feature of Parallels Desktop is that when you turn off your virtual machine, all the unused disk space gets returned to your main OS, thus minimizing resource waste (which used to be a problem with virtualization).

SmartGo Player installation steps for Mac

Step 1
Go to Parallels.com and download the latest version of the software.
Step 2
Follow the installation process and make sure you allow Parallels in your Mac’s security preferences (it will prompt you to do so).
Step 3
When prompted, download and install Windows 10. The download is around 5.7GB. Make sure you give it all the permissions that it asks for.
Step 4
Once Windows is done installing, you are ready to go. All that’s left to do is install SmartGo Player like you would on any PC.
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