Go Glossary — Terms You Hear During a Game

Listen to any Go commentary and you'll hear things like "the hane and cut is the tesuji here." Many people know the rules but can't follow along because they don't know the vocabulary. This glossary collects only the terms that are actually used a lot, grouped by situation.

Go for beginners · about 7 minutes to read

The state of the stones

Liberty

An empty point directly next to a stone along the lines. When all of them are filled, the stones are removed. Every fight in Go is a battle to gain liberties and take them away.

Atari

The state of having only one liberty left. The stones will be captured on the next move. Reducing the opponent's stones to one liberty is called "putting them in atari."

Capture

Removing opponent stones from the board once their liberties are gone. Capturing a single stone so that your stones surround it on all four sides is called a ponnuki, and it is regarded as the symbol of thickness — there is even a saying that "a ponnuki is worth 30 points."

Ladder

A technique that keeps putting the opponent's stones in atari until they are finally captured. Because you chase the fleeing stones diagonally across the board, the result looks like a staircase. What matters is the ladder breaker: if even one opponent stone sits in the ladder's path, the ladder fails, and then the chasing side suffers a big loss.

Net

A technique that traps opponent stones not by putting them in atari directly, but by blocking their escape route in advance. It is the alternative when a ladder doesn't work, and because there is no ladder breaker to worry about, it is often the safer choice in real games.

Double atari

A single move that puts two groups in atari at once. The opponent can save only one of them, so the other is bound to be captured.

Shapes of moves

Extend (stretch)

A move played directly next to your own stone, advancing one point. The sturdiest move, but also the slowest.

One-point jump

A move that leaves one empty point between stones. It strikes a good balance between solidity and speed, so it is the most frequently used. There is a proverb: "There is no bad move like a one-point jump."

Knight's move (keima)

A move one point to the side and two points forward, like a knight in chess. It moves quickly, but leaves room to be cut.

Hane

A move that bends around the opponent's stone from your stone that is in contact with it. It blocks the opponent's progress and widens your side. In life and death it is the key tool for enlarging or shrinking eye space.

Cut

A move that separates the opponent's stones. Each of the cut-off pieces then has to find its own way to live, which is a heavy burden.

Placement

A move that jumps into a vital point inside the opponent's position. The typical example in life and death is playing at the center of the eye space.

Tesuji

The most efficient key move in a given position. Saying "there's a tesuji here" means that a decisive move is hidden in place of the obvious one.

The flow of the game

Opening (fuseki)

The early stage of the game, when stones are placed in the corners and along the sides to sketch out the big picture. Direct fighting hasn't started yet.

Joseki

Sequences in the corner that are accepted as fair for both Black and White — the result of centuries of refinement. But a joseki is only best locally, so depending on the surrounding stones it can turn out to be a loss.

Shape and movement (haengma)

How you move your stones out across the board — the sense for choosing whether to extend, jump or play a knight's move.

Thickness

Strong stones that are not territory yet but exert influence on their surroundings. It is hard for the opponent to jump in near your thickness. How to trade territory for thickness, and vice versa, is one of the great themes of Go.

Territory (secure profit)

Points that are already settled as yours — the counterpart of thickness. Taking territory gives you something you can count right away, but it hands the opponent influence.

Sente and gote

If the opponent must answer your move, it is sente; if they can ignore it and play elsewhere, it is gote. Keeping sente lets you hold the initiative and go on to the next big point, so if two moves are worth the same, playing the one in sente is the better deal.

Tenuki

Ignoring the opponent's move and playing somewhere bigger instead. If your judgment is right you pull far ahead; if it's wrong you lose a lot.

Endgame (yose)

The final stage of the game, when the borders are settled. It isn't flashy, but in a game decided by a few points, results are often turned around here.

Life and death

Eye space

The space enclosed by a surrounded group. Life and death is judged from its size and shape.

False eye

A point that looks like an eye but ends up being filled because the stones around it are cut apart. It is not a real eye.

Seki

A state where neither side has two eyes, but whoever plays first loses, so both groups coexist as they are. The points belong to neither side's territory.

Alive and unsettled

A group that is unconditionally alive without needing any more moves is fully alive; one that may still die is unsettled (in Korean, wansaeng and misaeng).

Ko

The rule that prevents both sides from capturing a single stone back and forth forever, and the fight that results from it. You cannot retake immediately; you must play somewhere else first.

Ko threat

A move played elsewhere during a ko fight that the opponent must answer. The side with more ko threats wins the ko.

Etiquette terms

"Please" / "Thank you for the game"

The greetings exchanged at the start and end of a game. Online, players often exchange them in the chat as well.

Resignation

A game decided without counting: the losing side resigns instead of going to the count. When the difference is obvious, it is a courtesy that saves both players time.

Komi

Points added to White to compensate for Black's advantage of moving first. 6.5 points is common in Korea and Japan, 7.5 in China.

Handicap Go

When there is a difference in strength, the weaker player places stones on the board before the game begins. Each stone makes up for a rank's difference.