Rules of Go

This page is a reference for technical discussion of different rulesets. If you simply want to start playing, please read Rules of go - introductory. You will find more information at Rules of Go - second tutorial. If you are looking for practical information about the end of the game, see Counting and Scoring, or just use the simpler stone counting method (which however does give a slightly different result to modern methods, in some cases).

Go is unusual in not having an internationally agreed standard set of rules. In most practical situations, the best move is the same regardless of the ruleset, even though the text of the rules reads very differently, and the final score differs by at most one point. But there are rare situations where the differences between rulesets can be both significant and fascinating.

Like many other games, playing instructions for go are rather different from a complete and consistent set of rules. Like golf or bridge, the basic thrust of the game is simple, and many recreational players will learn the game without ever reading the full official rules, but there are so many situations to cover that a collection of playing instructions that does cover every one of them must seem complex or abstruse. Go is rich in unexpected situations that cannot be anticipated, and completely analysing them from first principles on one's own is near impossible.

There are ways of expressing the rules that are very simple however. It can be a case of "15 minutes to learn the rules; a lifetime to learn how to play well".

Table of contents Rulesets Official Rulesets Non-official Rulesets Sorted by Title Non-official Rulesets Sorted by "Inventor Name" Verbal Rulesets Tournament Rules External comparison Game Play Game End Counting Methods Related entries (1) Related entries (2)

Rulesets

These pages contain information about rule sets, and external references to official sources and expert commentary.

Official Rulesets

• Area Scoring
  • AGA Rules
  • BGA Rules, essentially AGA Rules
  • Chinese Rules
  • Computer Olympiad rules
  • French Rules, essentially AGA Rules
  • Ing Rules
  • Simplified Ing Rules
  • New Zealand Rules
  • World Mind Sports Games Rules
• Territory Scoring
  • Japanese Rules
  • Korean Rules

Non-official Rulesets Sorted by Title

• Button Go
• Einfache Gebietsregeln
• NetGo (non-standard boards, multi player)
• No Pass Go
• Renaissance Rules (the Asian game with draw on repetition)
• Reverse Button Go
• Simple Rules
• Tibetan Rules
• Two Button Go
• Ultimate Go (very simple, yet solving the "free teire" issue)
• Ultimate Theory of Weiqi Rules
• Zaru Go

Non-official Rulesets Sorted by "Inventor Name"

• Harleqin: Einfache Gebietsregeln
• Ikeda Rules http://gobase.org/studying/rules/ikeda/e_rules.html
• IGS rules
• Jasiek, Robert: Applicable Traditional Japanese Rules
• Jasiek, Robert: Default Restriction Rules
• Jasiek, Robert: Japanese 2003 Rules
• Jasiek, Robert: Multi-Player Go Rules
• Jasiek, Robert: New Amateur-Japanese Rules
• Jasiek, Robert: Simplified Japanese Rules
• Jasiek, Robert: Simplified Korean Rules
• Jasiek, Robert: Simplified World Mind Sports Games Rules
• Kee Rules of Go
• Lasker-Maas Rules
  • Lasker Maas Rules With Long Cycle Rule
• Mailing-list "go-rules": International Rules
• Makrai Rules
• MG Rules of Go
• Pauli, Robert: Logical Japanese Rules of Go
• Spight Rules
• Tromp-Taylor Rules a.k.a. “ the logical rules of go”
• Yaffe, Yoav: Ultimate Go (very simple, yet solving the "free teire" issue)
• Zamir: Heroically Concise Rules

Verbal Rulesets

• Verbal Japanese Rules (commentary by Jasiek, Robert)

Tournament Rules

• AGA Tournament Regulations
• EGF General Tournament Rules
• EGF Tournament System Rules

External comparison

Here are various sites comparing the different rule sets:

• http://www.britgo.org/rules/compare.html
• http://home.snafu.de/jasiek/bascomp.html
• http://online-go.com/docs/go-rules-comparison-matrix

https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~wjh/go/rules/ provides translated rulesets and comments on them.

Note: these tables differ on the question of whether free placement of handicap stones is allowed in AGA rules and in Chinese rules. For discussion, see /handicap placement.

Game Play

• Rule of capture
• Suicide
• Ko Rules come in several varieties.
  • Super Ko
  • Ing Ko Rule
  • Spight Superko Rule
    • These Ko shapes are useful to reference while reading about Ko Rules: Triple Ko and Eternal Life.
  • Kee Positional Superko Rule and Kee Disturbing Ko Rule
    • See how positional superko rule is generalized for 3+ players' game and how the concept of disturbing play is introduced to address anomalies.
• Rules And Area And Territory Scoring (implications of scoring methods on ko and other rules)

Game End

There are also several methods to define the score (result).

• Stone scoring (the simplest way to score for beginners but not entirely equivalent to modern scoring)
• Scoring (an overview)
• Territory And Area Scoring (deeper discussion)
• Korean Scoring
• Proximity Scoring
• No Pass Go (avoids counting and scoring entirely, just defines winner)

• Encore
• Resuming game

Counting Methods

When played on a physical board, determining the score involves manually counting. There are different counting methods in use. Some rule sets prescribe which counting method must be used, others do not.

• Chinese Counting
• Japanese Counting
• Stone scoring
• Stone Counting Method
• Prisoner-counting for Stone-scoring
• Prisoner Counting? (Prisoner scoring?)
• Ing Counting

Related entries (1)

• Robert Jasiek's Go (Weiqi, Baduk) Rules webpage
• Extensive commentary on the various rulesets appears in the appendices of Mathematical Go
• Go Rules Bestiary
• Rules Disputes
• Go Rules • Life In 19x19
• Rules of Go - Wikipedia

Related entries (2)

• Small board Go
• Solving Go on small Boards
• Wittgenstein on rules
• Sportsmanship
• Variants
• O. P. Rules