Go strategy for beginners

1. Corners first, then sides, then the centre

Every point you surround needs a fence of stones, and the edge of the board is a fence you get for free. In a corner, two edges do part of the work; on a side, one edge does; in the centre, you build the whole fence yourself. That is why good players start in the corners, move along the sides, and come to the centre last.

The line you play on matters too. Lines are counted from the nearest edge. A stone on the third line takes territory between itself and the edge. A stone on the fourth line takes less territory but faces the centre, which helps in later fights. In the opening the second line is too low to surround much, and the fifth is so high that your opponent can settle underneath it.

There are three usual first moves in a corner:

• The 3-3 point takes the corner at once and is hard to attack, but it is low and does little for the sides.
• The 4-4 point, the corner's star point, is quick and open towards both sides, but your opponent can still live underneath it, at the 3-3 point.
• The 3-4 point is between the two: it leans towards territory on one side and towards the centre on the other.

On a 9×9 board everything is close together. Its corner star points are the 3-3 points, and the centre point is a common first move too. Momiji Go's last lesson asks you to open on one of those star points.

2. Not too close, not too far

Once each corner has a stone, the next moves usually extend along the sides. Play too close to your own stones and two stones do the work of one, while your opponent uses the same move to start somewhere new. Play too far and your opponent can play between your stones and split them into two weak groups.

A simple guide on the third line: from a single stone, extend along the side so that two empty points lie between the stones. That is close enough for the stones to stay in touch if your opponent plays between them, and far enough to claim the side. A proverb gives the next steps: from a wall of two stones, extend three; from a wall of three, extend four.

Against your opponent, the same idea applies. Playing right against a lone stone usually helps it grow stronger. To attack it, play a point or two away.

3. Connect your stones, cut your opponent's

One group needs one way to live. Two separate groups each need their own, and while you look after one, your opponent attacks the other. So keep your stones joined where it matters, and look for ways to cut your opponent's apart.

Stones that touch only diagonally are not yet joined, but there are two points between them: if your opponent plays one, you can usually play the other. The danger comes when your opponent already holds one of the two. The other is then a cutting point, and whoever plays there first decides whether your stones are one group or two.

Before each move, look for cutting points in your own stones and in your opponent's. A cut that would only separate a stone you can afford to lose can wait; one that would split a large group is usually worth fixing at once. Two of the reasons Momiji Go's review gives for a better move are "It joins your groups into one" and "It keeps the opposing groups apart".

4. Count liberties before you fight

When a group of yours and a group of your opponent's are shut in against each other, and neither can make two eyes, one of them will usually be captured. This is a capturing race, and it is decided by counting liberties. If the groups share no liberties, the one with more wins. With the same number, whoever plays first in the race wins it.

Count before you start. If you are going to lose a race, don't play it out: each move adds another stone to a group that will be captured. Play elsewhere, or first find a way to gain liberties, such as joining a friendly group or capturing a stone. When you do play a race, take your opponent's outside liberties first. A liberty the two groups share is lost by both whoever fills it, so fill shared liberties last.

Momiji Go helps with the counting. During a game, stones in a group down to two liberties are ringed in amber, and stones in atari in red, yours and Lord Tsukikage's alike. Its fifth lesson ends with the habit to keep: count liberties before every fight.

5. Read the ladder, use the net

Lessons 10 and 11 of Momiji Go teach two ways of catching a stone that is trying to run.

The ladder

In a ladder, you put the running stones in atari with every move. They extend to escape, which gives them two liberties, and you put them back in atari from the other side. They zigzag across the board like a staircase until the edge stops them and they are captured.

Before you start a ladder, trace its path with your eye: it runs along a diagonal from the running stones to the edge. A stone of the runner's colour on that line, or close beside it, can be a ladder breaker, and then the ladder fails. A failed ladder is worse than none: every chasing stone is left with cutting points, and your opponent can often put two of them in atari with one move. If you are not sure a ladder works, don't play it.

The net

A net captures without a chase. Instead of putting the stone in atari, you play one point away from it, across its way out. Each time it pushes, you block, and each push only uses up its own liberties. A net does not depend on stones far away, so it can work where a ladder would fail.

6. Give up stones to win the game

Beginners lose many games by trying to save every stone. Each move spent rescuing a weak stone is a move your opponent spends on a bigger point. Before you save a stone, ask what it does. Stones that cut your opponent's groups apart, or hold your own groups together, are important: save them. Stones that do neither can usually go.

Sometimes you give stones up on purpose. While your opponent spends moves capturing two of your stones, you can build a wall outside them or take a corner. Some sacrifices win stones back at once. In a snapback, you play a stone where it can be captured, and the capture leaves your opponent's stones with a single liberty, so you play back on the same point and take more than you gave.

7. Two eyes, and the false eye

A group that cannot reach safety has to make two eyes to live. The rules guide explains why two are enough. To make them in a game:

• Live near the edges, and early. A group on a side or in a corner needs far fewer stones to surround two eyes than one in the centre. A group pressed into a narrow space may have no room for two at all.
• Find the vital point. Three empty points in a row inside your group are one eye. If you play the middle one, they become two eyes; if your opponent plays it first, your group has one eye and can be captured. This is lesson 8 of Momiji Go.
• Never fill your own eye. Momiji Go's review says so when you do: "Your stone filled one of your own eyes."

Not every empty point inside your stones is an eye. In a false eye, the stones around the point are joined to each other only through the point itself. Your opponent can put some of them in atari, and to save them you must fill the point, so the eye disappears. To check an eye, look at its diagonal points. In the centre, if your opponent holds two of the four, the eye is false. On the edge one of the two is enough, and in the corner the single diagonal point decides.

8. When to answer, and when to play elsewhere

A move that your opponent has to answer is sente: after the answer it is your turn again, and you choose where to play next. A move that does not need an answer is gote: it may gain something, but then your opponent chooses. Keeping sente means keeping the choice of what happens next.

When your opponent plays near your stones, you do not have to answer. Playing elsewhere instead is called tenuki. To decide, ask what happens if you don't answer. If a group of yours would die or be cut in two, answer. If you would only lose a few points, a bigger move elsewhere is often better. A player who answers every move lets the opponent keep sente all game.

Play urgent moves first, then big ones. An urgent move saves a weak group or attacks one; a big move takes an open corner or a wide side. A big point is worth nothing if a group of yours dies while you take it. Ko follows the same logic: a ko threat is a move elsewhere that your opponent must answer, which gives you the turn back to retake the ko. Momiji Go's lesson 7 shows one.

9. The endgame, in order

When the corners and sides are settled and the groups are safe, the game moves into the endgame: closing the borders between your area and your opponent's. Close games are decided here. Play the moves in this order:

1. Moves that are sente for both players. Whoever plays one first gains and keeps the turn, so take them as soon as you see them.
2. Your own sente moves. They gain something and your opponent must answer, so they cost you nothing.
3. The biggest gote moves. As a rule of thumb, a gote move is worth about half as much as a sente move that changes the same number of points.
4. The neutral points between the two areas, last of all.

To size a border move, count for both players. If your move there gains you two points, and your opponent's move there would have gained them two, it changes the difference between you by four.

Under area scoring, which Momiji Go uses, a stone on a neutral point counts for you, so fill those points before you pass. Under Japanese and Korean rules they count for nobody. Before you pass, check too that every border is closed: a gap is a way in for your opponent. In Momiji Go, once Lord Tsukikage has passed, the Pass key on the main panel reads End the game. Press it when there is nothing left to gain.

10. How to practise

• Play 9×9. A game takes minutes, so in one evening you see many openings, fights and endgames, and a mistake is punished quickly enough to see. Move up to 13×13 and 19×19 when the small board feels familiar.
• Review the games you lose. Find the move where the game turned, such as a group that died or a ladder that failed, and work out what you should have played instead.
• Solve small problems. Life-and-death problems, where you make a group live or kill it in a few moves, train the reading that every fight needs.

Momiji Go has tools for each of these. Lord Tsukikage plays at seven levels, from Novice to Master, on 9×9, 13×13 and 19×19 boards.

• Hint. The first press of the HINT key rings the neighbourhood of a good move, so that you look for it yourself. A second press shows the point and says what it does, such as "It captures a stone".
• Undo. The UNDO key takes back your last move together with his answer. Hints and take-backs are each three a game at levels 1 to 3, two at level 4 and one at level 5. There are none at levels 6 and 7, or against another person.
• Past games. Your last five games against Lord Tsukikage are kept. Where he sees a better move than one of yours, he marks it, says what it does and how much more often it wins, and plays its line out when you press Show me why.
• After a game. Once the count is over, the HINT key opens the game at the move that cost you most.