What is Go?
Go (also called Baduk in Korea and Weiqi in China) is a two-player board game where you take turns placing stones, trying to surround more territory than your opponent. One player has black stones, the other white. Black plays first, then you alternate—one stone per turn, and stones never move once placed.
That's the whole setup. No piece types, no movement rules. All of Go's famous depth comes from this one simple idea.
The board and stones
A full board is 19×19 lines, and stones go on the intersections, not inside the squares (the most common beginner mistake). Start on a 9×9 board—games last a few minutes and it's perfect for learning.
Rule 1: Liberties and capture
The single most important concept in Go is the liberty: an empty intersection directly next to a stone (up, down, left, right).
- A stone in the center has 4 liberties.
- When a stone—or a connected group—has all its liberties filled by the opponent (0 liberties left), it is captured and removed from the board.
So every move you're doing two things: keeping your own groups alive (with liberties) and taking away your opponent's. That's the heart of the game.
Rule 2: You win by territory
At the end of the game you count territory—the empty intersections your stones surround, plus any stones you captured. More territory wins.
Key mindset: Go is not about capturing every enemy stone—it's about claiming space. Beginners chase captures all over the board and lose because they never built territory. Surrounding area beats hunting stones.
Rule 3: Ko and the suicide rule
Two small exceptions—just be aware of them:
- No suicide: you can't place a stone where it would immediately have 0 liberties and capture nothing.
- Ko: to stop endless back-and-forth recaptures, you can't immediately recapture in a single-stone "ko" situation—you must play elsewhere first.
What to practice first
Knowing the rules is just the entry ticket. What actually makes you stronger is life and death (tsumego)—judging whether a group lives or dies. It's the foundation of all Go skill, and you build it by solving lots of problems.
The old way is a paper problem book. A smarter way is a structured problem library with an AI sparring partner that shows you exactly how you'd be punished when you slip, and schedules reviews right before you'd forget.
Curious how strong you are right now? Take a free rank test and start at the right level.