How to Play Go

Go is a game for two players. You take turns placing stones on a board, and the goal is to surround more territory — empty space — than your opponent. The rules are few; the strategy is endless.

What you need

A board — a grid of lines. Beginners usually start on a small 9×9 board; the full size is 19×19.
Stones — one player takes black, the other white.
Stones are placed on the intersections of the lines, not inside the squares.

A 9×9 board. Stones sit on the intersections, including the edges.

The basic rules

Black plays first. Players then alternate, placing one stone per turn on any empty intersection.
Stones don’t move. Once placed, a stone stays where it is — though it can be captured and removed.
You may pass instead of playing a stone.

Capturing stones

Every empty intersection directly touching a stone (up, down, left, or right) is a liberty.

This black stone has four liberties, marked ■.

A stone or connected group is captured and removed when its last liberty is filled by enemy stones — that is, when it is completely surrounded. A group with only one liberty left is said to be in atari.

White has one liberty left. Black plays ▲ to capture.

Black 1 fills the last liberty, and the white stone comes off the board.

Two more rules follow from capturing:

You may not play a stone that would have no liberties (self-capture), unless that same move captures enemy stones first.
Ko rule: you may not make a move that recreates the exact board position from your previous turn. This stops endless back-and-forth recaptures.

Black plays ▲ and captures the white stone next to it.

Now White would like to capture straight back at ▲ — but that would recreate the position above, so White must play elsewhere first.

Ending the game and winning

The game ends when both players pass in a row.
Your score is the empty territory you surround plus the stones you have captured.
White is usually given a few extra points (komi, around 6.5 or 7.5) to offset black’s first-move advantage.
The most points wins.

Black surrounds the nine shaded points in the top left, White the nine pale points in the bottom right. Add captured stones and komi to get the final score.

Tips for your first game

Start on a 9×9 board — a full game takes only a few minutes.
Play in the corners first, then the sides, then the centre; they are easier to surround.
Keep your stones connected — lone stones are easy to capture.
A group with two separate eyes (two distinct internal empty points) can never be captured. It is “alive.”
Don’t worry about mistakes — the best way to learn Go is to play.

This black group has two eyes, 1 and 2. White can never fill both, so it can never be captured.

Eyes at the edge of the board are valid too, so this white group — with eyes 1 and 2 — is also alive.

Learn more

Try an interactive lesson, or play online:

The Interactive Way to Go — a step-by-step interactive tutorial, and the friendliest place to start.
Learn to Play on OGS — guided lessons, then play free in your browser at online-go.com.
British Go Association introduction — a clear written overview of the rules.
Sensei’s Library — a vast community wiki for when you want to go deeper.

Play with us

The best way to improve is over a real board. SAGA has clubs in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Stellenbosch — see the Clubs page to get in touch, or play online with other South Africans through SA Internet Go.