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Pandanet (originally and sometimes called IGS, short for Internet Go Server), located in Tokyo, Japan, is a server that allows players of the game of Go to observe and play against others over the Internet. Started February 2, 1992, by Tim Casey, Chris Chisolm, and Mark Okada, working out of the University of New Mexico, and until April 5, 1993, continued at the University of California, Berkeley, and UC San Francisco (with an additional server at The Pasteur Institute, France), it was the first server of its kind. After its initial inception some of its members helped to improve the server by writing software with a graphical interface; and thus IGS was born. Pandanet hosts up to 3,000 players at a time, depending on the time of day. Its PC client's name is GoPanda.


History

IGS was first opened to the public in February 1992. The first server was located at the
University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; ) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1889 by the New Mexico Territorial Legislature, it is the state's second oldest university, a flagship university in th ...
. Within the first year, two more servers were deployed, one at the University of California at Berkeley and one at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France. Leaving the UC servers in 1993, it continued at the University of Pennsylvania for a year until being bought by the Korean ISP nuri.net in 1994. In 1995, the Japanese company NKB Inc., a partner of nuri.net, acquired IGS, and created the division "Pandanet" in 1996, which has managed IGS since. The first professional player to sign-on to IGS was
Jiang Zhujiu Jiang Zhujiu (; born February 17, 1962, in Taiyuan) is a Chinese people, Chinese professional 9-dan Go (board game), Go Go players, player. Biography Jiang began playing Go when he was 6. In 1982, he was 5 dan, and in 1983 he entered the Go ...
-9 dan-, on April 24, 1992, which started the trend of high level dan player membership that continues to this very day. Through the months of July and August of that year the first professional tournament was hosted, with over 300 games played. In September of that year Japan's famous Meijin Sen tournament was displayed live on IGS to an audience from many nations. Played in an Amsterdam hotel room by Kobayashi Koichi and Otake Hideo, the game was typed play-by-play by users jansteen and AshaiRey respectively, while watching the game on TV. It was witnessed by over 100 observers on IGS and took 16 hours to complete. A translation command was added to the server in December 1992, allowing users to better communicate with one another, and to translate the long list of commands required to run the early versions of the software.


Other activities

Besides being a Go server, Pandanet also hosts several art galleries. The main gallery contains Japanese and Chinese art that has a Go-related theme. Other galleries deal with vintage Go photographs and photography from the 19th and early 20th century, related to San Francisco and
Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...
. Pandanet broadcasts live championship matches for top professional events, including the
Meijin is one of the eight titles in Japanese professional shogi player, professional shogi, and is the most prestigious title, along with Ryūō. The word ( "excellent, artful", "person") refers to a highly skilled master of a certain field (the ...
,
Honinbo Honinbo (or Hon'inbō, 本因坊) is a title used by the head of the Honinbo house or the winner of the Honinbo tournament. Honinbo house The Honinbo house was a school of Go players officially founded in 1612 and discontinued in 1940. The foun ...
, and Judan titles, and the Ricoh Cup professional Pairs tournament.


See also

*
Go competitions This is a list of professional go (game), Go tournaments, for competitors in the board game of ''Go''. The tradition, initiated by the Honinbo, Honinbo Tournament in Japan, is for an event to be run annually, leading up to a title match and the a ...
* KGS Go Server


Notes


External links

*
Official Website

List of internet Go servers
on Sensei's Library
List of internet Go servers
on Free Internet Correspondence Games Server (FICGS) {{DEFAULTSORT:Pandanet Go servers