About Kifubara

Kifubara is a calm, quiet place to study Go — built by one person who plays the game and wanted better tools for it.

How it started

It began as a board scanner. I'm a software engineer, and for years I'd wanted an app that could photograph a real Go board and turn it into an SGF — but board recognition is much harder than it looks, and my earlier attempts never worked well enough. After a lot of experimenting I finally built one I actually use myself: snap a photo, get the position and score in about a second, no account or internet needed. It runs on iOS and Android, and (according to my girlfriend) it looks cute. I shared it with the Go community, and the response was lovely — people used it, sent feedback, and asked for more.

How it grew

One thing I kept hearing: the pro-game databases people relied on were often down. So I built an alternative — a regularly updated database of professional games, with a few modern touches: every new game already analyzed (win rate, mistakes, variations you can explore live with KataGo), playful tags to help you find the games you want, and free downloads and replays. Then I got a little carried away, and Kifubara grew to let you play rank-calibrated AI bots, upload your own games or sync them from your favorite game server, and even use Kifubara's cloud KataGo from KaTrain or Sabaki.

What it is now

One quiet place for everything Go: scan a real board, study the masters, review your own games with the same AI analysis — win rate, mistakes, explorable variations, and yes, fun tags — and play. The core is free, and I try to keep the whole thing calm and uncluttered — a tool that feels good to use.

How it's made

Kifubara is built and maintained by one person, alongside the Go community. Feedback genuinely shapes what comes next — a lot of what's here started as a request from someone on Reddit, and I try to respond quickly and ship fast. I'm also always glad to collaborate — with teachers, creators, and anyone building good things for Go.

If something's missing or could be better, tell me. If you'd like to support the project, you can subscribe or leave a one-time tip.

Where the historical games come from

Most of the historical games on Kifubara come from GoGoD — the Games of Go on Download database that T Mark Hall and John Fairbairn spent decades assembling, buying rare collections and hand-transcribing games long before records were easy to find online, and still correcting and extending as new discoveries surface in the Far East. We're grateful to be able to share it here, and we do so with download limits at their request. If you love the old games, the complete database is well worth owning — and John's go books on Go history are the deepest writing on these games you'll find in English.

I hope Kifubara makes your Go journey more enjoyable.

And yes — the name is "kifu" (game record) plus a capybara. The calmest animal seemed right.