How to play Go: rules for beginners

Go has only a few rules, yet it’s one of the deepest games ever invented. Learn them on a 9×9 board, then discover the ideas that make a group live.

The rules

1. Black plays first, placing a stone on any empty intersection. Players alternate. Stones don’t move.
2. Liberties: the empty points directly next to a stone (not diagonally). Touching stones of the same colour form a group and share liberties.
3. Capture: when a group has no liberties left, it’s removed.
4. No suicide: you can’t play a stone that would have no liberties, unless it captures.
5. Ko: you can’t immediately recapture in a way that repeats the board exactly.
6. The end: when both players pass in a row, the game ends and the score is counted.

Scoring

We use area scoring. Your score is your stones on the board plus empty points surrounded only by your stones. White adds 6.5 points of komi for moving second. Groups that can’t escape capture are treated as captured at the end.

Atari

A group with one liberty left is in atari: it will be captured next move unless you add liberties. Spotting atari, yours and your opponent’s, is the first skill to learn.

Two eyes make a group live

An eye is an empty point surrounded by your stones. A group with two separate eyes can never be captured, because your opponent can’t fill both at once. Making two eyes is how groups survive.

Beginner strategy

• Corners, then sides, then centre. Corners need the fewest stones to surround territory.
• Keep your stones connected, or at least close enough to connect when attacked.
• Don’t try to kill everything. Securing your own territory usually wins more points.
• Pass only when every border is closed and no move gains anything.