Play Go (Weiqi) online — vs computer or a friend
Go · Weiqi
Surround territory and capture stones — the oldest strategy game in the world.
New game
How to play
Place stones on the line intersections to surround empty territory and capture enemy groups (a group is taken when it has no adjacent empty points). Two passes end the game — most territory plus stones wins, with White getting +6.5 komi.
How to play Go well
Short guides to the rules that catch people out and the habits that win games.
Liberties and capture
A group of stones lives by its liberties, the empty points next to it. When the last one is filled, the group is captured. The one rule the rest of Go is built on.
Two eyes and life
A group with two separate eyes can never be captured. What an eye is, why one is not enough, and how to tell a real eye from a false one.
The ko rule
Ko stops a single capture repeating forever. What the rule is, why it exists, and how ko fights work when a one point capture is worth more than it looks.
How Go is scored
How a game of Go actually ends and who wins. Area scoring explained, why White gets komi, and how to count without arguing.
Playing Go on 9x9
Small board, whole game, twenty minutes. Why 9x9 is the best place to start Go, what changes on it, and the opening principles that work.
Or learn Xiangqi, the game this site is built around.