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Rules of Go - introductory

 Difficulty: Introductory   Keywords: Opening, Rules

This page introduces the basics of Go rules. These rules allow you to quickly move to playing your first game.[12]

Table of contents 1. Players 2. Board 3. Point 4. Stones 5. Play 6. Game Start 7. Capture 8. No Repetition 9. End of the Game 10. What's next? edit? 1. Players The game is played by two players. We call them Black and White.

edit? 2. Board The board is a grid of horizontal and vertical lines.

The board used to give examples on this page is small (5x5) compared to the sizes Go players normally use, but the size of the board does not affect the rules.

A board The example board has 5 horizontal and 5 vertical lines.

You win the game by controlling more than half of the board.

edit? 3. Point The lines of the board have intersections wherever they cross or touch each other. Each intersection is called a point. That includes the four corners, and the edges of the board.

Two points The example board has 25 points. The red circle shows one particular point. The red square in the corner shows another point.

Adjacency Two points connected by a line segment are said to be adjacent or next to one another. The triangles are adjacent. The crosses are not adjacent.

Go is played on the points of the board, not on the squares.

edit? 4. Stones Black uses black stones (). White uses white stones ().

Some stones The example shows a board position from the middle of the game with 4 black stones and 3 white stones. The points which have no stones are unoccupied or empty points.

You don't need to use stones to play Go. Poker chips, beads, buttons, coins... whatever you've got.

edit? 5. Play Players take alternate turns.

The player whose turn it is puts one of his own stones on an empty point.

Before the play

A white play White plays a white stone at the point .

After the play

Sometimes, after placing his stone, a player removes some of his opponent's stones from the board to complete his turn [7].

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

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

Unless a player passes, he puts one of his stones on the board on each of his turns. Remember, the stones don't move.

edit? 6. Game Start

Empty board The game starts with all points on the board empty.

Black plays first.

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

If one player has more experience, Black should start with several stones on the board. This is called a handicap. It makes the game more fun and more educational for both players.

edit? 7. Capture The Capture Rule: If a player surrounds the opponent's stone or stones completely, he captures those stones and removes them from the board.

Every stone on the board must be next to an empty point. (An empty point next to a stone is called a liberty.)

If a stone is not next to an empty point, but it's next to some other stones of the same color which are next to an empty point, that's fine too. (Strings of adjacent stones "share liberties".)

If there are no empty points next to a stone or a string of stones (the stone has no liberties), the stones are immediately taken off the board.

Four examples follow. The first example shows Black capturing a single White stone. The second shows Black capturing a clump of three White stones. The third shows Black capturing a clump of four White stones and another lone White stone with the same move. The fourth example shows White capturing two Black stones.

(Example 1)

Before the play The white stone is almost surrounded. It is next to only one empty point, shown by the square. (Remember, only points connected by a line segment are next to one another. So the circles () do not count as liberties, for example.)

Black captures Black's move surrounds the white stone completely.

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

(Example 2)

Before the play

Black captures three stones The three white stones are connected along the lines of the board, and stand or fall together.

Black's move occupies their last liberty and captures them, removing them from the board to leave the third position.

After the play

(Example 3)

Before the play

Black captures 5 stones

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 captures the five surrounded white stones. occupies the last liberty of the four white stones at the top, but this point 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)

Before the play

White captures

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

It does not matter that the white stone's only liberty used to be occupied by a black stone. All stones on the board must have at least one liberty, but on a player's own turn he captures enemy stones and removes them from the board before checking his own liberties. In this example, White captures two stones and clears out one liberty for his stone, leaving a legal position.

edit? 8. No Repetition The Repetition Rule: One may not play a move which repeats a previous board position.

This rule prevents players from endlessly capturing and recapturing one stone, back and forth.

A position

A legal move

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

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

Once Black has played a move elsewhere, capturing the stone at will be a legal move on subsequent turns. Wherever Black plays, his stone will create a brand-new position on the board.

For more on this rule, see ko.

The situation where repeating captures of the same stones would be possible without a special rule is called a ko; ko fights can be one of the most exciting parts of the game.

edit? 9. End of the Game The Victory Rule: The player who controls (occupies or surrounds) more points than his opponent wins the game.

When neither player wants to keep putting stones on the board, they will each pass. (Remember, passing is always a legal move... although until the end of the game, it's not a very good move!) The player who controls more of the board wins. Each player can figure out how many points he controls by counting up the number of his stones left on the board, the empty points surrounded only by stones of his color (his territory), and then adding the two numbers together. Whoever has more points wins the game.

Final position

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

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.

Final position Some players prefer to just count up one player's points. If that player controls less than half the board, his opponent controls more than half, and vice versa. Other players keep track of how many black and white stones were captured, instead of how many stones are left on the board at the end of the game. These are just different ways of adding up the points to determine who controls more of the board.

That's it! Now you can play go.

edit? 10. What's next? This page is a first, basic introduction to the game. As an introduction, it does not seek to overwhelm the reader with a bestiary? of strange cases which are decided differently depending on the exact wording of the rules. If precise readers spot inconsistencies in these rules; or if eager beginners encounter a situation in their games which they found ambiguous; then they may wish to consult

Rules of go - second tutorial for further detail The second tutorial aims to deal with frequently asked questions, introduce the finer points of making a consistent rule set, and explain why different Go associations sometimes have different rules. However, it still assumes that the reader does not yet have a good intuitive feel for the game. To jump straight into the thick of things, see

Rules of go A more subtle understanding of the rules of Go will not help you play Go better. There are several minor variations to the rules of Go worldwide, but it is quite rare for these variations to affect play. Most of the confusions that a beginner faces are not about how to play, but about how to play well.

Beginner study section Strategy of go - introductory These pages should help with the first questions arising from practical play. For other pages aimed at beginners, see

Pages for Beginners