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The goal of Go is to control more territory than your opponent by surrounding empty areas with your stones.
A liberty is an empty intersection adjacent to a stone or group of stones. Stones or groups with no liberties are captured.
You cannot immediately recapture a single stone that just captured one of your stones, as this would create an infinite loop.
A player may pass their turn. When both players pass consecutively, the game ends and territory is counted.
The player with the higher score wins. Score is calculated as:
Play against the computer AI with three difficulty levels:
Simply tap on any intersection to place a stone. The game will automatically handle captures and enforce rules.
Go is an ancient board game that's easy to learn but takes a lifetime to master. This tutorial will teach you the basics step by step.
In Go, two players alternate placing black and white stones on a grid. The goal is to control more territory than your opponent.
Stones are placed on the intersections of the grid lines, not in the squares. Once placed, stones cannot be moved (unless captured).
Try placing a black stone by tapping on the highlighted intersection:
Each stone has "liberties" - empty adjacent intersections. A stone with no liberties is captured and removed from the board.
The red dots show the liberties of the white stone. If Black plays on any of these points, the white stone will be captured!
When a stone or group of stones has no liberties, it is captured. Let's see how capturing works:
Tap on the highlighted intersection to capture the white stone:
Stones of the same color that are connected horizontally or vertically form a group. Groups share liberties and are captured together.
This black group has 4 liberties (shown in red). White would need to play on all 4 points to capture the group.
The Ko rule prevents infinite recapturing. You cannot immediately recapture a single stone that just captured one of your stones.
In this situation, after Black captures, White cannot immediately recapture. White must play elsewhere first.
You cannot make a move that would cause your own stone or group to have no liberties, unless it captures opponent stones.
Black cannot play in the middle of this white group because it would be immediately captured without capturing any white stones.
Territory is empty space surrounded by your stones. "Eyes" are empty points that cannot be captured, making groups safe.
This black group has two eyes (marked with X). It cannot be captured because White can never fill both eyes.
At the end of the game, players score points for:
The player with the higher score wins!
When both players pass consecutively, the game ends and territory is counted.
You've learned the basics of Go! Remember these key points:
Practice makes perfect! Start with a 9×9 board to get the hang of it, then move to larger boards as you improve.
Enjoy playing Go!