How to Play Go: Rules for Beginners (Capture, Ko, Scoring)

The equipment

A board ruled with a 19×19 grid, 181 black stones and 180 white stones, and two bowls. Stones go on the intersections, not in the squares, and once placed they never move. Beginners play on 9×9 or 13×13 grids, which many boards print on the reverse side.

Rule 1: take turns placing one stone

Black plays first. Players alternate, placing one stone of their colour on any empty intersection. You may pass instead of playing. That is the whole of a turn.

Rule 2: liberties and capture

The empty intersections directly next to a stone, up, down, left and right but not diagonally, are its liberties. A stone in the middle of the board has four, on the edge three, in the corner two.

Stones of the same colour that touch along the lines form a group and share their liberties. When a player fills the last liberty of an opposing stone or group, that stone or group is captured and removed from the board. Captured stones are kept as prisoners.

Rule 3: no suicide

You may not place a stone where it, or the group it joins, would have no liberties, unless the move captures opposing stones and so gains liberties back. A move that captures is always legal, even into a point that looks surrounded.

Rule 4: ko

Sometimes a single stone captures a single stone in a way that would let the opponent immediately capture straight back, and the position would repeat forever. The ko rule forbids that immediate recapture: the opponent must play somewhere else first, and only then may they take back. The move played elsewhere is called a ko threat, and fights over ko are one of the most interesting parts of the game.

Why two eyes make a group safe

An eye is an empty point completely surrounded by one player’s stones. A group with only one eye can be captured: the opponent fills the outside liberties, then plays in the eye, which is legal because that final move captures. A group with two separate eyes can never be captured, because the opponent can never fill both at once. Learning to see whether a group can make two eyes is the first real skill in go.

How the game ends

When both players pass in succession, the game is over. Players then agree which stones are dead: stones still on the board that could not avoid capture if play continued. Dead stones are removed and counted as prisoners. If players disagree, they play on until it is settled.

Scoring and komi

Territory scoring (Japanese and Korean rules): your score is the empty points you surround plus the prisoners you hold.
Area scoring (Chinese rules, and the AGA in the US in practice): your score is the empty points you surround plus your stones on the board.
The two methods almost always produce the same winner. Most online servers let you pick either.
Komi: because Black moves first, White receives extra points, usually 6.5 under Japanese and Korean rules and 7.5 under Chinese and AGA rules. The half point prevents draws.
Handicap: a weaker player takes Black and places 2 to 9 stones on the marked star points before White’s first move, with no or a half-point komi. It lets players of very different strength enjoy an even game.

Your first games: start on 9×9

Play your first ten or twenty games on a 9×9 board. They last ten minutes and teach capture, eyes and life and death far faster than the full board.
Move to 13×13 when you can reliably tell whether a group is alive. The opening starts to matter here.
Play 19×19 once 13×13 feels small. On the full board, take the corners first, then the sides, then the centre: corners need the fewest stones to secure territory.
Do not be afraid to lose stones. Beginners who play safe stay beginners; the ones who fight and lose groups improve fastest.

Five beginner mistakes

Playing next to every opposing stone. Contact play strengthens the opponent as often as it threatens them.
Saving every stone. Some stones are worth sacrificing; recognising which is most of the game.
Ignoring the corners in the opening.
Filling your own eyes. A group with two eyes is alive until you play in one of them yourself.
Playing on after the game is decided. If every border is settled, pass and count.

Where to play and learn

Online, the Online Go Server (OGS), KGS and Fox all have beginners playing at every hour, and OGS starts new players on 9×9. The interactive tutorial “The Interactive Way to Go” teaches the rules in about twenty minutes. For a physical set, a reversible 19×19 and 9×9 or 13×13 board with glass or Yunzi stones is the right first purchase; our go, xiangqi and shogi guide covers what to check.

Frequently asked questions

Who goes first in go?

Black always plays first. In an even game, players decide colours by nigiri, a guessing game with stones, and White receives komi to compensate for moving second.

Can you move stones in go?

No. Once placed, a stone stays on its intersection until it is captured and removed.

How do you win at go?

By having the higher score when the game ends: surrounded territory plus prisoners under Japanese rules, or territory plus stones on the board under Chinese rules, with komi added for White.

What size go board should a beginner use?

9×9 for the first games, then 13×13, then the full 19×19. Many boards are reversible, with 19×19 on one side and a smaller grid on the other.

Where to go next

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