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Basic Rules of Go
  Difficulty: Beginner   Keywords: Proverb

This page introduces the basic rules principles of Go. Please see BasicStrategyOfGo or BasicRulesOfGoAdvanced for more detail.


[1] Players - [2] Board - [3]Point - [4] Stones - [5] Play - [6] Start - [7] Capture - [8] Suicide - [9] Repetition - [10] Pass - [11] Objective


[1] Players

The game is played by two players. They are called Black and White, respectively.


[2] Board

The board is a grid of horizontal and vertical lines.

[Diagram]
Diag.: A board

The example board has 5 horizontal and 5 vertical lines.


[3] Point

The lines of the board have intersections wherever they cross or touch each other. Each intersection is called a point.

[Diagram]
Diag.: A point

The example board has 25 points. The red circle shows one particular point.

Go is played on the points of the board.


[4] Stones

Black uses black stones. White uses white stones.

[Diagram]
Diag.: Some stones

The example shows a board with 4 black stones and 3 white stones. The stones are always played on the board points.


[5] Play

Rule of Alternation: Players take alternate turns.

The player having the turn puts one of his own stones on an empty point.

[Diagram]
Diag.: Before the play

[Diagram]
Diag.: A white play

[Diagram]
Diag.: After the play

White plays a white stone at the point 1.

Sometimes, to complete a play, a player removes stones from the board [7].

Sometimes there are points that may not be played on a particular turn [8] [9].

Instead of playing a stone on their turn, a player may pass [10].


[6] Game Start

The game starts with all board points empty.

[Diagram]
Diag.: Empty board


Black plays first in the game.

[Diagram]
Diag.: Black starts

In the example Black chooses to start at the point 1.


[7] Capture

Rule of Capture: If a play surrounds the opponent's stone or stones completely, the player captures them and removes them from the board.

(Example 1)

[Diagram]
Diag.: Before the play

The White stone is almost surrounded. It is adjacent to only one empty point, shown by the square. (An empty point adjacent to a stone or connected group of stones is called a liberty.) It is not adjacent to other nearby points, shown by circles.


[Diagram]
Diag.: Black captures

Black's move 1 surrounds the White stone completely.


[Diagram]
Diag.: After the play

Black's move 1 occupies the last liberty of the white stone, thus capturing it and removing it from the board.

(Example 2)

[Diagram]
Diag.: Before the play

[Diagram]
Diag.: Black captures 3 stones

[Diagram]
Diag.: After the play

The 3 White stones are connected along the lines of the board, and stand or fall together.

Blacks' move 1 occupies their last liberty and removes them from the board, capturing them.

(Example 3)

[Diagram]
Diag.: Before the play

[Diagram]
Diag.: Black captures 5 stones

[Diagram]
Diag.: After the play

A play can also surround different stones at the same time even if not all of them are connected along lines. Black's move 1 captures the surrounded five white stones. For this Black occupies the last liberty of the four white stones at the top which is also the last liberty of the one white stone in the middle. All the white stones without liberties are captured and thus are removed.

(Example 4)

[Diagram]
Diag.: Before the play

[Diagram]
Diag.: White captures

[Diagram]
Diag.: After the play

The White play 1 occupies the last liberty of the two black stones, and removes them.

It does not matter that temporarily a white stone does not have a liberty; after execution of the White play, all stones on the board have at least one liberty again.


[8] Suicide

Some rules of go allow a player to make a play that removes the last liberty of his own stones, called suicide. This is explained on BasicRulesOfGoAdvanced and Suicide.

[Diagram]
Diag.: Suicide

Black's play 1 causes the three Black stones at the top to have no liberties remaining. This causes them to be captured by White and removed, and thus a play like this is known as suicide.



[9] No Repetition

Rule of No Repetition: After any move one may not repeat all points' colors.

This rule prevents endless repetition.

[Diagram]
Diag.: A position

[Diagram]
Diag.: A legal move

[Diagram]
Diag.: Illegal move

White's move 1 removes a stone and Black's move 2 would remove the stone 1. However, Black would also repeat an earlier position - the position just before move 1.

Since repetition of the board position is prohibited by this rule, Black cannot play at the point 2 now in the example. Currently Black must play on a different point.

Note that on subsequent turns, the same play may be available as a legal move, because it will not be repeating the same board position.

For more on this rule, see Ko.


[10] Pass

On any turn a player may pass their turn instead of playing a stone [5] (usually when the player realises no more beneficial moves are available). The opponent then takes their turn.

When both players pass in succession, the game ends.


[11] Game Object

Rule of Game Object: The object of the game is to occupy or surround the most points.

At the game end (when both players pass [10]) the winner is the player with the greater number of stones of his colour on the board plus empty points surrounded only by stones of his colour.

[Diagram]
Diag.: Final position

[Diagram]
Diag.: Black's points

13 points score for Black: 7 points occupied by black stones and 6 points surrounded by only black stones.


[Diagram]
Diag.: White's points

12 points score for White: 7 points occupied by white stones and 5 points surrounded by only white stones.

In the example, Black controls more points and therefore Black wins the game.


[This page is a basic introduction of only the rules. If you consider editing this page, then please first consider whether it can be put on BasicRulesOfGoAdvanced or BasicStrategyOfGo.



This is a copy of the living page "Basic Rules of Go" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2003 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.