Go Rules for Beginners: How to Capture Stones and How the Winner Is Decided

Go is played by placing black and white stones, one at a time, on the 361 points where 19 horizontal and 19 vertical lines cross. At the end you compare the areas each side has surrounded with its stones, and the larger one wins. There are no piece moves to learn, and the core rules are much shorter than those of shogi or chess.

This post sets out, in order, the minimum rules someone who has never played needs to finish a first game. How to play well, life and death, opening patterns and so on, I will leave for another time. For the rules I used the Nihon Ki-in’s Japanese Rules of Go.

1. Stones go on the intersections, in turn

Stones are placed on the points where lines cross, not inside the squares. Black plays first, and then White and Black alternate, one stone at a time.

A stone, once placed, never moves. Unless it is captured, it stays where it is until the end of the game. If there is nowhere you want to play, you can pass. Unlike shogi and chess, go allows you to skip your turn.

2. Fill the liberties and you capture

The empty points directly above, below, left and right of a stone are its liberties. Diagonals do not count. A single stone in the middle of the board has four liberties, a stone on the edge has three, and a stone in the corner has two.

When you fill every liberty of an opponent’s stone with your own stones, you capture it and take it off the board. Keep the stones you capture, called prisoners, because you use them when you count at the end.

Stones of the same colour that touch above, below, left or right form a single group. The liberties of a group are all the liberties of its stones together. When every liberty of a group is filled, the whole group is captured.

A stone or group with only one liberty left is said to be in atari. As a beginner, just checking every move whether your stones are in atari, and whether you can put the opponent’s stones in atari, changes how you play.

3. Some points are illegal

You can play almost anywhere, but there is one exception. You may not play a stone that would leave your own stone or group with no liberties at the moment you play it. This is suicide, and the point is illegal.

But if playing there captures opponent stones, the move is allowed. Capturing creates liberties, so your stone survives. An easy way to remember it: you may play there if it captures, and you may not if it does not.

4. Ko: you cannot take back at once

In a shape where each side can capture one stone back and forth, retaking immediately would repeat the same position. This shape is called ko.

In a ko, the player whose stone was just captured may not retake straight away. They must play somewhere else first, and after the opponent answers, they may retake. Without this rule, the same exchange could go on forever. Ko does not come up often in your first few games. I think it is enough to remember that you cannot immediately retake the stone that just captured yours.

5. The game ends with two passes in a row

Go has no single move that ends the game, like checkmate in chess. When neither side has anywhere useful left to play, one player passes, the other passes too, and the game is over.

Then both players agree which stones cannot be saved, that is, stones that are certain to be captured. These dead stones are removed and added to the prisoners. Judging which stones are dead is hard at first, so it is reassuring to have an experienced player look at the board.

At any point you can also resign if you think there is no chance of winning.

6. Count the territory to decide the winner

The empty points surrounded only by your stones are your territory, counted in points. Under Japanese rules, after the game you use your prisoners to fill the opponent’s territory, then compare the territory that remains. Each captured stone takes one point away from the opponent, so capturing stones also scores points.

Black has an advantage from moving first, so White receives extra points called komi. In Nihon Ki-in tournaments the komi is 6.5 points. Because of the half point, there are no draws. For example, if after filling with prisoners Black has 40 points of territory and White 34, White’s total with komi is 40.5, and White wins by half a point.

Japanese and Chinese rules

There are several families of go rules. The two most often compared are Japanese rules and Chinese rules.

Japanese rules count territory and prisoners, as described above. Chinese rules count the stones you have on the board plus your territory, and prisoners are not used. The komi is also different: under Chinese rules it is the equivalent of 7.5 points.

The counting differs, but in almost every game the winner is the same under either rule. For your first few games, knowing one way to count is enough.

Why go seems hard

From here on, this is my opinion. For such short rules, go has a reputation for being difficult. I think there are two reasons.

One is that the full board is too big. A 19x19 board has 361 points, and from the first move you do not know where to play. The Nihon Ki-in’s introduction page also suggests starting on a 9x9 board. With only 81 points, captures and the fight over territory happen right in front of you.

The other is that the end of the game and the result are hard to see. In shogi and chess the game ends when the king is caught, but in go a beginner often cannot tell when the game is over or who won. This becomes clear naturally as you play more. For the first few games, I think it helps to have someone check your count.

Your first game on a 9x9 board

StudyX Mindsports is an app with 12 strategy games, including go. Go is played on a 9x9 board, and handicap games are supported. Counting follows Japanese rules, and in even games the komi is 6.5.

The go beginner lessons teach the rules through tap-to-answer quizzes and then let you practise in real game positions. The lessons are available in 15 languages. After the lessons, you can play the CPU from Lv.1 to Lv.50. It goes up one level when you win and down one when you lose, so the opponent adjusts to your results without you choosing a strength. The games and beginner lessons are free, with ads. Each game’s first advanced lesson is free too, and a one-time purchase opens the rest and removes the ads.

How go differs from shogi and chess is in Shogi, Go and Chess: The Differences, and how to use Mindsports is in Getting Started with Mindsports.