Practical tutorial
Connect life and death, shape, joseki, fuseki, and the endgame to whole-board decisions.
Practical tutorial
Choose a step in the inline tutorial below to review the flow.
Learning
Rules Guide
Learn intersections, liberties, atari, ko, and territory in order.
Place stones on intersections in turn, surround the opponent's stones on all four sides to capture them, and finally compete over the size of your territory.
- Article Build More Territory Than the Opponent
- Move sequence Place a stone on the intersection
- Move sequence Capture by blocking all four orthogonal directions.
- Move sequence Build a safe group and turn it into territory
- Multiple choice The side with more territory wins
Learn the flow of surrounding stones, avoiding illegal recaptures, and counting the territory after consecutive passes.
- Article 9x9 board rules flow
Read life and death, tesuji, shape, and thickness, then connect joseki to fuseki and the endgame.
- Article Compare Local Life and Death with Whole-Board Value
- Article Recognize Life and Death, Tesuji, and Good Shape
- Article Compare thickness, territory, framework, and initiative
- Article Choose joseki by purpose and stone placement
- Article From Big Opening Points to Endgame Values
Go Basics
Choose a step in the inline tutorial below to review the flow.
Capturing stones and basic rules
Open it only when you need to check something.
Placing and capturing stones
Standard human-readable notation
B[ef]
Count from A on the left (skipping I) and from 1 at the bottom.
Intersection
Place on a point where lines cross Stones are placed on intersections of lines, not inside the board's squares.Liberty
An empty adjacent point A stone or connected group remains alive as long as it has an empty point directly above, below, left, or right.Capture
Fill every adjacent point Capture an opposing stone by filling all of its liberties.Territory
Empty space surrounded by stones At the end of the game, compare the territory surrounded by your stones and the stones you captured.Surround to capture
- To capture a stone, fill every orthogonally adjacent liberty of that stone or its connected group.
- A diagonal stone does not fill a liberty.
- Connected stones share liberties as a single group.
Ko and territory
- Ko restricts a position in which the same capture would repeat indefinitely.
- In the endgame, weigh stones that can be captured against territory that can be enclosed. The game ends when both players stop making necessary moves.
Next step
Choose after the tutorialOnce you are comfortable moving pieces, review anything that was unclear or practice your decisions with a short problem.