How to play Go

1. The board and the stones

• Go is played on a grid of lines. The stones go on the points where lines cross, not in the squares.
• The full board is 19×19. Beginners usually start on a 9×9 or 13×13 board, where a game takes minutes.
• One player has the black stones, the other the white. Black moves first, then the players take turns, placing one stone on any empty point.
• Once placed, a stone never moves. It stays until it is captured.
• Instead of placing a stone, you may pass.

The aim is to surround more of the board than your opponent.

2. Liberties

The empty points directly next to a stone, up, down, left and right, are its liberties. Diagonal points do not count.

3. Groups

Stones of one colour that sit next to each other along the lines form a group. A group lives or dies as one, and its liberties are all the empty points next to any of its stones. Stones that only touch diagonally are not connected.

4. Capturing

When a stone or a group has no liberties left, it is captured and taken off the board. A group with only one liberty left is in atari: one more stone captures it.

5. No suicide

You may not place a stone where it would have no liberties, unless that move captures opposing stones and so gains liberties at once.

6. Ko

Sometimes a capture leaves a shape where the other player could take back at once, and the two could repeat the same captures forever. This is called ko, and its rule is simple: you may not recapture straight away. Play somewhere else first; if the ko is still open on your next turn, you may take it back then.

7. Life and death

A group that can never be captured is alive. The secret is two eyes: two separate empty points inside the group. The opponent cannot fill both at once, and a stone played in just one of them would have no liberties, so the group keeps its liberties forever. A group that cannot make two eyes can, in the end, be captured.

8. Ending the game and counting

When neither player sees anything left to gain, both pass, one after the other, and the game ends. Stones that both players agree could not escape capture are taken off as captured.

Then the board is counted. Under area scoring, used in China and by Momiji Go, your score is your stones on the board plus the empty points they surround. Japanese and Korean rules count the surrounded points plus the stones you captured instead; the winner is almost always the same.

Because Black moves first, White receives extra points called komi, usually 6.5 or 7.5 on a 19×19 board. The half point means a game cannot end in a draw.

9. Five tips for your first games

1. Start small. A 9×9 board teaches the rules quickly.
2. Corners first, then the sides, then the centre. Near the corners, a few stones surround the most points.
3. Count liberties in a fight. The group with more liberties usually wins it.
4. Don't try to save every stone. Giving up a weak stone often makes the rest stronger.
5. Make two eyes for your groups, or connect them to a group that has them.