What Does The Many Faces of Go 12.0 Include and Which Platforms Does It Support?

The Many Faces of Go 12.0 is Smart Games LLC's flagship Go program, combining a Monte Carlo Tree Search engine with traditional knowledge-intensive Go techniques. It includes calibrated difficulty levels from 1 Dan to 18 kyu, Joseki and Fuseki tutors, commented professional games, and Go problems. It runs natively on Windows XP through Windows 10; Mac users can run it through WINE, Crossover, or Parallels. The download is free, but unlocking the full version requires a purchased registration key.

What the program includes

According to the product description on smart-games.com, version 12.0 bundles several training and play features:

• Hybrid engine — merges the Monte Carlo Tree Search algorithm with traditional knowledge-intensive techniques, producing a player the site describes as stronger than either approach alone.
• Calibrated levels — difficulty settings from 1 Dan down to 18 kyu, intended to track your strength as you improve.
• Joseki and Fuseki tutors — guided instruction on opening and corner patterns.
• Commented professional games — professional games with annotations for study.
• Go problems — built-in problem sets for practice.

The engine has competitive credentials listed on the site: 2011 TCGA World Champion, 2010 ICGA World Champion (13x13), 2008 ING Cup Champion (19x19 and 9x9), 2002 21st Century Cup winner, and 1998 Ing Cup World Champion.

Platform support

The iOS note matters if you found the site through older references to Igowin: those apps were sold from 2010 to 2020, then removed after Apple made incompatible software changes, and the site states they are no longer available.

Free vs. licensed use

The site offers a free evaluation copy of version 12.0 as a download. After evaluating, you can buy a version 12 license to receive registration keys that unlock the full version on all of your computers. A free update to version 12.024 fixes Windows registration code issues, so licensed users hitting registration problems should apply that update. The site does not publish pricing, so check the purchase flow for current terms.

Other free downloads on the same site

Smart Games also distributes:

• A free 9x9 Go player and tutorial for Windows XP through Windows 10 that adjusts to your strength and never repeats a game.
• A free 9x9 Go player with tutorial for iPod/iPhone/iPad (search "Igowin" in the App Store — note this conflicts with the retirement notice above, so verify availability before relying on it).
• A supercomputer implementation of Many Faces of Go for Windows Server 2008 clusters using MPI.
• The world-champion Arimaa program (Arimaa was Games Magazine's 2010 best strategy game; the program won the Arimaa computer world championship five times).
• A maze-generating program.

Who it suits

Choose The Many Faces of Go 12.0 if you play on Windows and want a single program that pairs a strong engine with structured study material (tutors, commented games, problems) and strength-calibrated opponents. If you are on a Mac, plan on WINE, Crossover, or Parallels rather than a native build. If you only want a lightweight 9x9 trainer, the free Windows 9x9 program covers that without a license.