You can also find an “Old website” link on the homepage. The classic website uses your existing account, but you may need to sign in there separately. The browser app remains available at https://www.littlegolem.net/app/.
We are preparing to retire the classic interface, but no shutdown date has been set yet.
Please try the new website and let us know about bugs or anything you still need from the classic version. When reporting a problem, please include the page or game number, your browser or device, and what you expected to happen.
Thank you for helping improve Little Golem, and for your patience during the transition!
I have been using the new interface with Chrome and Firefox, but today a new things have happened and I hate them all:
1 the scrollbars have disappeared, so that I cannot scroll down to the moves in the game
2 The scroll function of the mouse wheel has been replaced by a resizing of the game board within the (now fixed) window size
3 the image does not adjust when I resize the window.
In my recent history when I click on my last game (against jytou game#2554166 completed 24 Oct 2026) I am taken to game game#2496302 which I played against jgerhard sometime in 2025.
Does not happen when I use the “/app” via Chrome on the iPad.
The the browser version, the game exports live in the hamburger menu in the lower left of the screen now (where the option is to resign as well). At least, that's where I see it in my browser.
The colours of the pieces in Tzaar differ from the previous interface, increasing the ambiguity. If adjustments are made to improve clarity, they should align more closely with the actual board game rather than widening the contrast.
Hi, I saw a lot of improvements have been made since my last message, many thanks for that. Here is, though, a list of other improvements which should be, in my opinion, made.
When viewing a Havannah game:
the stones are pure black and white, it was better in the old version (looked more like actual stones, and less constrat);
the mouse wheel allows to zoom in and out, but I think there are too few zoom values, especially because the height of the container of the board does not change (or at least I didn't find how to resize it): the default - and minimal - zoom value feels slightly too small for me, and while the next one is OK, the top & bottom of the board are cut.
Generally:
the menus and the arrays displaying information have an incredibly large padding, so that information is spread far too much and not easy to read;
many lists do not display enough information (in particular, they display less than before), e.g., in a player's 'Ratings & current tournaments', we do not see, like before, the values of wins & draws & losses & games & ongoing games for each game variant;
the order of many lists is not very helpful, in particular the order of the game variants; why not using the alphabetical order? Another, still more annyoying example, is the order in which the championships are displayed: in alphabetical order (of tournament ID), rather than in chronological order! And worse, e.g. 'havannah.35.1.1' sits between 'havannah.4.1.1' and 'havannah.3.1.1': it would far better to use the numbers as numbers rather than as strings: 35, 34, 33..., 4, 3, 2, 1, rather than 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 35, 34, 33, 32, 31, 3, 29...
The problem of the sorting of the lists is worsened by the fact a user cannot click on the headers to choose their own order or to filter the data. Another issue is that the pages of such lists are not numbered, hence one cannot go directly to the URL of, say, page 42 (we can type within the URL the ID of the element preceding the first one appearing in the page, but it would be far simpler to be able to type the first element that we actually want to be displayed).
Still about the list of tournaments of a championship (same thing for the other types of tournament): too few data are displayed, whereas before, we had at least the name of winner in the list. Generally speaking, the lists would be far more useful with more information contained in them, and (I repeat myself) less padding, so that we can better see the data at a global scale.
I have nothing special against the colours of the new website, apart from the fact that I think there is too much white, and thus, combined with the large padding, that information is not easy to see.
Let's take the example of a tournament page, e.g., again Havannah (I didn't check the other pages).
-- The cross table is too large, there are even horizontal & vertical scroll bars! The names of the opponents could be abbreviated to get narrower columns; the results inside would be better displayed as '2', '1', '0', '?', '-', , rather than 'Win', 'Draw', 'Loss', 'Playing', '-' (these labels could be displayed when the mouse goes over the short labels).
-- There is no need for a separate list with the points & SB of the players, they could be added (as before) at the right of the cross table.
-- The cross table has lost the ranks of the players compared to the previous version; btw, in case of equality, the ranks should be the same, which was not the case in the old version (they were considered the same, but were not displayed as such).
-- The list of games beneath the cross table should contain more information, e.g. the winner (written in bold, for instance), whether it is over or not, the number of moves, and maybe the date of the last move played.
For Street Soccer, is the score displayed anywhere? I can't find it on my games on the new website, but it's pretty important for deciding on a move. I end up having to pull up the old moves and count each person's goals.
I find the toroidal go much worse than the previous version. The three-line area "outside" beeing much paler is very unhelpful. It should be rendered the same as the main area IMO. The way it is at the moment makes it much harder to read / calculate.
I don't like that new interface made totally new vision of tournaments. There are less championships, less tournament options for different games and to tell you the truth I don't know why we totally reduce tournaments option for new version instead expanding it. I prefer to play Chess, Chess960 and Go 9x9 and soon I won't have any games to play except ladder games and next championships for these games aren't even introduced (except chess for the second half of 2027). Earlier we had mini cups, championships for each game 2 times a year in the same months. I don't want to play individual games against the same player, I don't understand why we can't keep the previous tournaments vision and calendar.
I can't begin to tell you how much I hate the new Website. I can no longer access the old website at all and my ancient computer can't access the new website. So the only way I can play my games is on my cell phone with a tiny screen that I find it very difficult to work with. I have a terrible time visualizing how to move. I plan to struggle through finishing the games I have going and then saying goodbye forever to Little Golem. It was a great 20+ years but I'm done.
Would like to see the list of moves in the web version as I am seeing it in the app. Along with the ability to back up the display to a particular intermediate position -- it helps a lot in figuring out what went wrong (as it often does for me and my AI).
I’m using an iPad, and I still find this new site very difficult to use. I wish the old site would be made available to people who prefer to use it. Like Markelle, I’ll probably just finish the games I have going now, then leave the site for good.
Hi grade1teacher, I’m sorry the new website has been difficult to use on your iPad. Could you try the Little Golem iPad app? You can sign in with your existing account and continue your current games:
Starting yesterday, the list of games where it's my turn won't load on my phone in the app. The lists of finished games and the games where it's my opponents' move load fine. But the games where I'm on move shows a gray area instead of the games.
Another update came yesterday. Among other things it centralized most actions on the game in the hamburger menu (app version) and in the suspension marks (…) menu (web version). I find it annoying to have to go to a menu to cancel a move I just clicked to allow me to think it out before confirming or canceling.
As a solution in the app version it is possible to switch to "analyse" mode. and then it is possible to move back and forth and explore future moves easily. I noticed that switching to analysis is not possible when a move is already displayed.
My friendly "requests":
1. Ideally I prefer having both "cancel move" and "skip game" both available as 1 click instead of 2 (but I can see how this can be an improvement for smaller devices like phones!)
2. In addition to point 1, I want to add that in my view, sending the move or canceling it should be treated with the same UI choices. So they need to be visible at the same place.
3. Allowing the switch to analysis without the need to cancel a move first.
User interface is a complex matter, were no choice will satisfy everyone.
I noticed also a cool addition. The icons for the games are now personalized each icon beeing a iconized version of the actual status of the game. It was already so in the web version but since yesterday (that I noticed, maybe earlier) it spread to the app version. I hope the coolness of it doesn't affect loading times too much! I guess that depends if the icons are generated on the spot or stored in a large folder after each move.
Thanks Richard for the efforts and time dedicated
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My post is just a few hours old, and it is already updated - Cancel button is back - Thank you!
A lot of cool changes lately! A non cool one, in my opinion, and similar to bennok, is to have the basic buttons (analyze for me is a must have) at the bottom of the game with direct access - going to fetch it in a menu adds a lot of friction, and I agree for the cancel button as well. Besides, without those, that space is just… empty. So better fill it with something useful, such as those buttons. Other buttons such as resign can still stay in a drop down since they would be barely used.
Updates are continuous. Version was 1.37.2 yesterday. It is 1.37.3 today.
Thanks for the nice updates. I noticed a cool improvement: my point 3 was corrected beyond my demand! Not only was analysis made available after playing a test move but that move is inherited by the analysis board. Also when coming back from analysis the explored move is still there ready to be sent. Very optimal! It largely compensates the select menu and click annoyance.
https://old.littlegolem.net/ isn't working. The main reason I would prefer to use the old website is because now the games take a while to load. I'm pretty sure on the old website they would load more or less instantly.
Richard Malaschitz, At your suggestion, I have installed the Little Golem app on my iPad, and I am finding it easier to use than the browser site. I only play 2 games at this site - 4 in a row (8x8) and Golem Word Game. I can play 4 in a row at other game sites, but Golem Word Game is unique to this site, and I enjoy playing it, so I don’t want to leave. I have a request for an improvement to Golem Word Game. Could you add an option to preview a move before sending the move? I like to be able to see what the board will look like for my opponent before sending the move. Thank you.
Little Golem