Liberties and capture
Surround territory, keep your groups alive, and count at the end.
Go has almost no rules, and this is the one that matters. Every stone on the board has liberties: the empty points directly next to it, up, down, left and right. Stones of the same colour that touch each other share their liberties as one group. Fill the last liberty of a group and it comes off the board. Everything else in Go, every joseki, every life and death problem, every ladder, is a consequence of that sentence.
Counting liberties
A lone stone in the middle of the board has four liberties. On the edge it has three. In the corner, two. That is why corners are fought over first: stones there are cheaper to make safe.
Connected stones pool their liberties, which is why connection matters so much. Two separate stones with two liberties each are far weaker than the same two stones joined, sharing six.
Atari, and what to do about it
A group with exactly one liberty left is in atari. It will be captured next move unless you do something. Your options are to extend, adding liberties by playing another stone; to connect to a friendly group with liberties of its own; or to capture the attacking stones first.
Running with a group that cannot gain liberties is the classic beginner mistake. Each extra stone you add to a doomed group is another prisoner handed over.
Suicide is not allowed
You may not play a stone that would leave its own group with no liberties, unless that same move captures enemy stones and thereby creates one. The board here enforces this, so a move that would be suicide is simply refused.
Play a game
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Common questions
- What is a liberty in Go?
- An empty point directly adjacent to a stone or a connected group of stones. A group with no liberties is captured and removed.
- What does atari mean?
- A group is in atari when it has exactly one liberty left, so it can be captured on the opponent's next move.
- Can I play a move that kills my own stones?
- No. Suicide is illegal, unless the move captures enemy stones and gives your group a liberty as a result.
More on Go
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.
This site is built around Xiangqi, Chinese chess. If you enjoy Go, the rules of Xiangqi take about five minutes, and there is always somebody to play.