Top 64

Go / Weiqi

A two-player abstract-strategy mind sport of extraordinary depth, in which Black and White alternately place stones on a 19x19 grid to surround and form more territory than the other. Capturing fights interlock with the territory-building opening to create a depth that has kept this game alive for thousands of years.

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👥 2–2 players age 8+⏱️ 30–180 min🎯 weight 4/5

Turn clock (chess clock)

FamilyDeduction & bluffingAbstract & puzzle

Rules

A two-player abstract strategy game in which Black and White alternately place stones on the intersections of a 19-line grid, each trying to surround more territory than the other. Capturing fights and territory-building moves interlock to create the depth that has kept this game alive for thousands of years.

Edition: Per the Korea Baduk Association's official 'Rules of Baduk', 'Competition Rules' and 'How to Play' pages (baduk.or.kr, checked 2026-10-11) — including territory counting and Black's 6.5-point komi (the Korean rule set). The English text was cross-checked against the Nihon Ki-in's official English 'How to Play GO' rules. This guide covers only what a beginner needs to play a first game on a 9x9 board; opening theory and joseki are not covered.Korean/English edition checks complete

Components

Component	Quantity	Notes
Board	1	A 19x19 grid with 361 intersections (per the Korea Baduk Association's 'How to Play' page)
Stones	1 bowl each of black and white	Typically 181 black and 180 white stones, enough to fill all 361 intersections (exact spares vary by set)

Every diagram in this guide uses a 9x9 board. The rules are identical regardless of board size, so this guide recommends learning the feel of liberties, captures and territory on a 9x9 board before moving to the full 19x19 board.

Stones sit on points, not squares

This guide's diagrams borrow a square-grid component to draw the board, but a real Go board is a point grid — stones are placed where the lines intersect. Each small square in a diagram stands for one intersection.

Setup

A 9x9 board marks 5 star points — one in each corner (the 3-3 point) and one in the center (tengen). The board starts completely empty.

1Sit facing each other across an empty 9x9 board. Star points are just helpful landmarks; no special rule applies to them.
2One player takes the black stones, the other takes white. Black always moves first.
3When you move up to a full 19x19 board, apply the same rules to all 361 intersections.

Taking a turn

1Players alternate turns, each placing one stone of their own color on an empty intersection.
2Once placed, a stone can never be picked up and moved to another point.
3If you have no good place to play, you may pass instead of placing a stone.
4The game ends the moment both players pass in succession, moving to the counting procedure.

A pass is not a resignation

If one player passes and the other then plays a stone, the game continues normally. Only two passes in a row end the game.

Liberties and capture

A liberty is an empty intersection directly adjacent to a stone, horizontally or vertically — diagonals do not count. Stones of the same color connected horizontally or vertically share one combined pool of liberties.

Before the capture

→
White plays the last liberty

After the capture

A single black stone surrounded by three white stones has only one liberty left (below it). If White plays on that last liberty, the black stone is immediately removed and becomes a captured stone.

A stone is removed the instant its liberties reach zero

The moment an opponent fills the last liberty of a stone or a connected group, that stone or group is removed from the board as a captured stone. Captured stones are later used to fill the opponent's territory when counting.

Forbidden moves — suicide and ko

Forbidden move	Why	Exception
Suicide (self-capture)	Playing a stone that would leave it with zero liberties	Legal if that same move captures an opposing stone, creating a new liberty
Ko	Immediately recreating the exact position the opponent's last move produced	Legal once you have played elsewhere (a ko threat) first

The center point is surrounded by white stones on all four sides, but the white group still has liberties elsewhere, so a black stone played there would capture nothing. That black stone's own liberties would then be zero — this is a suicide move and is illegal.

Before Black's capture

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Black captures the single white stone

Right after Black's capture

The single white stone has only one liberty left (left board). When Black plays there and captures it (right board), that black stone also has only one liberty — the point just vacated. If White played there immediately, the position would return to exactly how it looked before — this immediate recapture is forbidden by the ko rule.

Ko prevents an endless loop

If both sides kept recapturing the same single stone, the game would never end. The Korea Baduk Association's rules require a player to play elsewhere first before recapturing in a ko.

Life and death basics — living with two eyes

Turning the suicide rule around leads to an important conclusion: a group that completely owns two separate empty points (eyes) can never be captured. Playing into either eye would leave the opponent's own stone with zero liberties and nothing captured — a suicide move.

Two eyes — alive

One eye — dies

The group on the left has two separated eyes; the one on the right has only a single connected eye. The left group can never be captured, since playing in either eye is suicide for the opponent. The right group dies the moment the opponent fills its one remaining liberty, the center eye.

On a small board like 9x9, two eyes matter early

On a cramped board, territory can quickly be reduced to a single-eye shape. Always check whether your group holds two separated empty points.

Counting territory and komi

1Once the game ends (two passes in a row), remove any dead stones both players agree cannot survive, and add them to the captured-stone pile.
2Among the remaining empty intersections, count any point completely surrounded by only one color as that color's territory. A point either color can reach is dame and does not count as territory.
3Deduct captured stones from the opponent's territory, one point per captured stone (per the Korea Baduk Association's 'How to Play' page).
4Per Article 9 of the Korea Baduk Association's competition rules, Black deducts a 6.5-point komi from its territory count — compensation to White for not having the first move.
5After territory, captures and komi are all applied, the player with the higher total wins. Since komi is a half-point, there are no ties.

Seven black stones enclose 9 empty intersections, which count as Black's territory (the border continues further on a real board). Any stones captured during play are added on top when counting.

Seki counts as neither territory nor captures

A seki — a standoff where two groups share dame between them without either side daring to fill it — is excluded entirely from the territory count (Article 8 of the Korea Baduk Association's Rules of Baduk).

Ending the game and rare exceptions

The game ends the moment both players pass in a row, moving straight to counting.
If the players disagree on which stones are dead, they continue playing out the position until the capture is actually confirmed, then count.
Extremely rare repeating shapes such as triple ko, eternal life, or cyclic ko are ruled a draw by repeated position under the Korea Baduk Association's rules (Article 9).

In practice, games are often decided before counting ever begins: a player who judges the position hopeless may simply stop playing and resign. This custom is not written as a separate numbered article in the Korea Baduk Association's 11-article Rules of Baduk, but it is widely used at the table.

Handicap games and regional rule differences

When two players have a large skill gap, a handicap game evens the odds.

1The weaker player takes Black and places an agreed number of handicap stones on star points before the game begins.
2In a handicap game, the two players usually agree that White moves first (per the Korea Baduk Association's 'How to Play' page).
3Handicap games commonly drop komi altogether or reduce it. The exact number and placement of handicap stones, and any komi adjustment, follow whatever tournament or club rules apply.

Unverified: a standard placement table by handicap count

The Korea Baduk Association source checked for this guide only confirms that White moves first in a handicap game. Check tournament rules or an instructor for the exact star-point placement used for each handicap count.

Komi varies by country

Per a Wikipedia cross-check, Japan and Korea use a 6.5-point komi, while Chinese rules use 7.5 points (or an equivalent stone-count adjustment). This guide follows the Korea Baduk Association's 6.5-point komi.

Etiquette at the board

Offer the better seat to an elder or a stronger player.
Hold a stone only with your right hand, pinching it lightly between your index and middle fingers. Avoid placing it loudly enough to click against the board.
By convention, the first move of an even game goes in the upper-right corner, and the first move of a handicap game goes in the lower-right corner.
Avoid unnecessary talk during play, and spectators should never offer advice on a move in progress.
After the game, it's customary to say "well played" or "I learned a lot" to each other, then tidy the stones back into their bowls once counting is done.

Etiquette is part of Go culture too

The Korea Baduk Association describes this etiquette as part of Go's tradition as a 'way that values courtesy.' It carries no bearing on who wins, but it's a custom worth learning from your very first game.

Basic strategy

Judge the position by territory size, not by how many stones you've captured — capturing many stones while holding little territory still loses.
On a small board like 9x9, claiming space in the order corner, then side, then center is often stronger than fighting in one spot early.
When one of your groups is down to two liberties or fewer, examine that situation first.
Before every move, check both what it captures for you and whether your own group still keeps two separate eyes.

Frequently confused rules

Q. How are captured stones used when counting?

Per the Korea Baduk Association's 'How to Play' page, captured stones are deducted one for one from the opponent's territory during counting. Capturing more stones shrinks the opponent's territory count.

Q. Is a suicide move ever allowed?

Yes, if that same move captures an opposing stone and so gains a new liberty. What's forbidden is a move that captures nothing while leaving your own stone with zero liberties (Article 4).

Q. Why can't I immediately recapture in a ko?

Because immediate recapture would repeat the same single-stone exchange forever, and the game would never progress. The rules require playing elsewhere (a ko threat) before recapturing (Article 6).

Q. Do the rules differ between a 9x9 and a 19x19 board?

No. Liberties, captures, ko, suicide and territory counting all apply identically regardless of board size. A smaller board just has less territory, so games end faster.

Q. Why does Black give up points for komi?

Because moving first is an advantage. Article 9 of the Korea Baduk Association's competition rules compensates for that advantage by having Black deduct 6.5 points from its territory count in a standard game.

Q. Can a game end before counting even happens?

Yes, and it often does. A player who judges the position clearly lost may simply stop and resign. This is not written as a separate numbered article in the Korea Baduk Association's 11-article Rules of Baduk, but it is a common practice at the table.

History and today

Go is believed to have been invented in China more than 2,500 years ago and is often counted among the oldest board games still played today. Per a Wikipedia cross-check, the earliest surviving reference appears in the 4th-century-BCE text Zuo Zhuan, describing an event from 548 BCE.

The game reached the Korean peninsula by the Three Kingdoms period. Per a Namuwiki cross-check, the Samguk Yusa records that the Goguryeo monk Dorim played Go with King Gaero of Baekje, and Goguryeo-era relics found near Pyongyang are counted among the oldest domestic evidence of the game.

Modern Korean Go took shape when Jo Nam-cheol founded the Hanseong Gi-won (the forerunner of the Korea Baduk Association) in 1945, reorganizing domestic play around Japanese-style rules. Players such as Cho Hunhyun, Lee Chang-ho, and Lee Sedol went on to become world-class professionals.

In March 2016, 9-dan professional Lee Sedol played a five-game match against Google DeepMind's AlphaGo, which won 4 games to 1. This is counted as a landmark case of artificial intelligence defeating a top-ranked professional, and it greatly increased public interest in Go within Korea.

The professional qualification system is still active

Per a Namuwiki cross-check, the Korea Baduk Association selects roughly 120 trainees (yeon-gu-saeng) each year, ranked into tiers, and trainees must pass a professional qualification tournament to turn professional; women compete in a separate qualification tournament. Check the Korea Baduk Association's own notices for the current intake and system.

Sources

Korea Baduk Association official 'Rules of Baduk' — placing stones, liberties, forbidden moves, life/death, ko, territory and dame, seki, repeated positions, counting (Articles 1-11)Korea Baduk Association official 'Competition Rules' — 6.5-point komi (Article 9)Korea Baduk Association official 'How to Play' — 19x19 board, 361 points, Black moves first except in handicap games Korea Baduk Association official 'History of Baduk'Korea Baduk Association official 'Etiquette' — seating, how to hold a stone, where to play the first stone, greetings Nihon Ki-in official English rules — 'How to Play GO': intersections, liberties, territory, suicide, ko, opening through endgame, counting, handicap play Wikipedia cross-check — Go (game)Namuwiki cross-check — Baduk, the Korean name for Go

Rule summaries are reference content written by us, not quotations from the official rulebook. Always check the official rulebook for exact rules. Diagrams are original schematics, not rulebook illustrations.

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Last updated 2026-10-11

💡 Master tip

Don't get fixated on capturing stones. The player who completes the largest territory wins Go, not the player who captures the most stones. In the opening, claiming space broadly across the whole board usually matters more than a local fight.

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