The Rules of Go, Explained — From Placing a Stone to Counting the Score

You can write down all the rules of Go in ten lines. Yet those ten lines produce more possible games than there are atoms in the universe. The rules are simple, so the game is easy to learn — and that is exactly why people end up playing it for a lifetime.

Go for beginners · about 8 minutes to read

1. The board and the stones

A Go board is a grid of 19 horizontal and 19 vertical lines. There are 361 intersections, and stones are placed on the points where the lines cross, not inside the squares.

The nine dots printed on the board are the star points (hoshi). They were once used as the fixed spots for handicap stones, and today they mainly serve as reference points for finding your way around the board.

There are two colors of stones, black and white, and in practice there is no limit on how many you have. Black plays first, then the players alternate. A stone, once placed, can never be moved. This is the decisive difference from chess or janggi. In Go a stone is not a piece that travels; it is closer to a mark that stays where it was put.

Beginners often start on a 9×9 or 13×13 board. The rules are exactly the same; only the board is smaller. A 9×9 game takes about ten minutes, which makes it ideal for learning the rules. (AI games on the baduk use the 19×19 board; if that feels like too much, take a few handicap stones.)

2. Liberties — what keeps a stone on the board

Every stone has liberties: the empty points directly next to it along the lines. A stone in the middle of the board has four liberties — up, down, left and right. On the edge it has three, and in the corner only two.

Stones of the same color that are connected along the lines count as a single group, and the group's liberties are all the empty points around the whole group. Two stones side by side have 6 liberties, not 4+4=8, because the points where they touch each other are not liberties.

This gives you your first sense of Go: stones grow stronger the closer together they are, but they also become less efficient. Two stones placed in direct contact have 6 liberties; leave one point between them and they have 8. That is why, in the opening, you spread your stones out rather than playing them in contact.

3. Capturing — when the liberties run out, the stones come off

When every liberty of a group is filled by the opponent's stones, that group is removed from the board. This is capturing. Captured stones are kept aside and used in the final count.

A group with only one liberty left is in atari. If your opponent puts you in atari, your stones will be captured on the next move, so you must either run to gain liberties or capture some of the opponent's stones first. Half of all beginner games are decided by this exchange of ataris.

4. Illegal points — where you cannot play

You may not play a stone that would leave your own stones with no liberties at all the moment it is placed. That would be killing yourself — a suicide move.

There is one exception: you may play there if the move captures opponent stones. Once the opponent's stones are removed, empty points appear and your stone can breathe. This is where the order rule above comes into play.

This exception comes up constantly in real games. It is usually the reason why a move that jumps into what looks like a dead spot can capture the opponent's stones. In life-and-death problems the vital point is often exactly this kind of spot.

5. Ko — the rule against repeating positions

If both players keep capturing a single stone back and forth, the same position could repeat forever. The ko rule prevents this.

It is simple. If your opponent has just captured one stone, you may not immediately recapture. You must play somewhere else first. If your opponent uses that move to fill the ko, it is over; if they answer your move elsewhere, you may then retake the ko.

This rule gives rise to the idea of a ko threat: a move played elsewhere during a ko fight, which must be threatening enough that the opponent has to answer it. The side with more ko threats has the advantage in a ko fight. Ko is the most distinctive rule in Go, and a large share of dramatic turnarounds come from it.

6. Territory — what you are competing for

The aim of Go is to control more territory. Territory is made of empty points completely surrounded by your stones. Each empty point counts as one point.

Judging whether an area is "completely surrounded" is hard at first. The test is this: if the opponent invades that space and you can capture the invaders, it is your territory; if the opponent can live inside it, it is not. So to keep your territory, you have to close its borders solidly.

This is also what confuses beginners the longest. A small area that is securely closed is often worth more in the end than a large area loosely sketched out.

7. Two eyes — the shape that can't be captured

For a group to survive, it needs two separate eyes. An eye is an empty point surrounded only by that group.

With only one eye, the moment the opponent fills it every liberty is gone and the group is captured. With two eyes, the opponent can never fill both at once: trying to fill either one would be an illegal suicide move. That is why a group with two eyes can never be captured.

Watch out for false eyes. They look like eyes, but the surrounding stones are not connected, so the point eventually gets filled. When you count eyes, first check that the stones around each eye are firmly connected to one another.

8. Ending the game

When you judge that there is nowhere useful left to play, you pass. When both players pass in a row, the game ends.

Beginners often go wrong here. Passing while some borders are still unsettled simply loses points. On the other hand, continuing to play in areas that are already decided means filling in your own territory. The sense of "there's nothing left to play" is at the heart of studying the endgame.

After the game ends, dead stones are cleaned up. Stones that clearly cannot be saved are removed and added to the opponent's prisoners. If the players disagree, they play the position out to check.

9. Counting and komi

How the score is counted depends on the rule set.

Korean/Japanese rules (territory scoring)

Count the empty points in your territory and subtract the number of your stones the opponent has captured. In practice, captured stones are placed back into the opponent's territory before counting. Stones on the board are not counted.

Chinese rules (area scoring)

Count the empty points in your territory plus the number of your living stones on the board. Captured stones are not subtracted. The method differs, but the result usually comes out within a point of territory scoring.

Because Black gains an advantage by playing first, White receives compensation. This is komi. Korea and Japan usually use 6.5 points, China 7.5. The half point is there to rule out a draw.

10. Now that you know the rules

That is all there is to the rules. What you need now is to sit down at a board and actually play.

We recommend starting with handicap games against the AI. Placing a few stones first takes the pressure off, and you'll quickly develop a feel for liberties and capturing. Once you are comfortable, add life-and-death problems. Life and death is the most calculable part of Go, so you can see your progress with your own eyes.