🪨 Go

About Go

Go has been played in China for well over two thousand years and remains, by common consent, the deepest of the classic board games. Black and white stones are placed in turn on the empty points of a grid and never move; a group whose last liberty is taken is captured and lifted from the board. The aim is to surround more of the board than your opponent, and the art lies in balancing solid shape against ambitious reach. Here the game is played on the gentler nine-by-nine board or the fuller thirteen-by-thirteen, against a computer opponent at three strengths, with area scoring, the customary six and a half points of komi for White, and an illustrated guide to the rules for newcomers.

Category

🎲 Board

Last updated

Sep 28, 2026

Platforms

Browser (desktop, mobile, tablet)

Controls

Tap or click

Developer

AdrawTech

How to Play

Place a stone on any empty point; stones never move once played. A stone or connected group with no empty points beside it is captured. Suicide is not allowed, and ko forbids retaking a single stone at once. Two passes in a row end the game. Mark any dead groups, then confirm: stones plus surrounded points score, and White receives 6.5 points of komi.

💡 Tips & Strategy

Play the corners first, then the sides, then the centre. A corner can be enclosed with the fewest stones because two edges of the board do half the work; a side uses one edge; the centre uses none. That efficiency is why strong openings on every board size begin near the corners, and on the nine-by-nine board the points on the third line near each corner make natural first moves.

Count liberties constantly. A group lives or dies by its empty neighbouring points, and most games between newcomers are decided by a group whose liberties ran out unnoticed. When one of your groups is down to one liberty — in atari — either give it more room at once, connect it to a stronger friend, or let it go; a stone that can be chased along a ladder to the edge should be abandoned early, not fed.

A group with two separate eyes can never be captured, because the opponent can never fill both at once. When a group is under attack, make its eyes early and make them genuinely separate: one large eye can often be reduced to a single one. Conversely, the surest way to kill an enemy group is to deny it room for a second eye.

In the endgame, remember that this game uses area scoring: every stone on the board and every point you surround counts. Neutral points between the two sides are therefore worth a point each to whoever fills them, so fill them before you pass. White receives 6.5 points of komi, so as Black you must win the board by seven. Begin on nine-by-nine at the easiest level, use undo to see what a move should have been, and move up when you win more often than you lose.