{"id":29,"date":"2021-03-16T23:33:12","date_gmt":"2021-03-16T23:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/polgote.com\/en\/blog\/how-play-go-tutorial-beginners\/"},"modified":"2024-07-01T09:31:28","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T09:31:28","slug":"how-play-go-tutorial-beginners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/polgote.com\/en\/blog\/how-play-go-tutorial-beginners\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Play Go? – Tutorial for Beginners"},"content":{"rendered":"

A regular Go match is played between two players on a square board. One of the players plays with black pieces (called stones) and the other player plays with white stones. The object of the game is to surround a bigger part of the board than the opponent. Read more and learn how to play Go.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The beginning<\/h2>\n

In the beginning of\u00a0the game the\u00a0board is\u00a0empty. Then the players put on the board their black and white stones\u00a0one after another.<\/strong>\u00a0The player with black stones makes the first move. An\u00a0example of\u00a0the first moves of\u00a0a\u00a0game is\u00a0shown on\u00a0the diagram below.<\/p>\n

\"how_to_play_go_moves.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The game finishes when the players split the board and\u00a0decide that no\u00a0more sensible moves are available.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What is needed to\u00a0play Go?<\/h2>\n

To play Go you\u00a0need a\u00a0board and a\u00a0set of\u00a0stones<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The regular Go\u00a0tournaments are always played on\u00a0big boards of\u00a0size 19×19. The number of stones in a set usually equals 360 or 361 (180 white stones and 180 or 181 black stones).<\/p>\n

Beginners usually start to play Go on smaller boards of\u00a0size 9×9. In these sets there are usually only 40 white stones and 40 or 41 black stones.<\/p>\n

With a\u00a0smaller size of the board a\u00a0game won’t take that much time. However, it\u00a0doesn’t make the game uninteresting. During big Go\u00a0events, like European Go\u00a0Congress, there is\u00a0always a\u00a09×9 tournament.<\/p>\n

Almost all Go boards are made of wood. Because of an important role of Go in the culture of the Far East, Go boards are often made of high quality wood.<\/strong>\u00a0Usually kaya, a\u00a0type of\u00a0yew tree, is\u00a0being used.<\/p>\n

The Go\u00a0stones are often made of\u00a0glass or\u00a0ceramic.<\/strong>\u00a0However, the highest quality Go\u00a0sets include black stones made of\u00a0slate and white stones made of\u00a0shell.<\/p>\n

Go \u2013\u00a0the surrounding game<\/h2>\n

In\u00a0Go, a\u00a0move consists of\u00a0putting a\u00a0stone on\u00a0any empty intersection of\u00a0the board. The goal of\u00a0each player is\u00a0to surround as\u00a0big territories with their stones as\u00a0possible and not to\u00a0let the opponent do\u00a0so. That’s the reason why the name of Go in Chinese can be translated as the surrounding game<\/a><\/u>. An\u00a0example of a Go match is\u00a0shown on\u00a0the diagram below.<\/p>\n

\"how_to_play_go_territories.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Black surrounded a\u00a0territory on\u00a0the right, and white on\u00a0the left. The one who surrounded\u00a0more empty intersections (got more points)<\/strong>\u00a0is\u00a0a\u00a0winner. On\u00a0the diagram black got 35\u00a0points and white got 23\u00a0points, so\u00a0black wins.<\/p>\n

However, you could ask a\u00a0question: what if\u00a0white doesn’t agree that the area on\u00a0the right is\u00a0black’s territory – wouldn’t it be possible for white to play there?<\/p>\n

White can play in that area. However, it’s not clear if\u00a0the stone will survive. To\u00a0understand it, we\u00a0need to\u00a0learn the rule of\u00a0capturing stones<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

How to capture stones in Go?<\/h2>\n

An important rule of\u00a0Go says that when a\u00a0stone gets closely surrounded by\u00a0the opponent, it\u00a0becomes a\u00a0prisoner<\/strong> and it’s removed from\u00a0the board. It\u00a0means that to\u00a0capture your opponent’s stone, you need to\u00a0put your stones on\u00a0all adjacent intersections. The same applies to\u00a0chains of\u00a0stones, i.e. connected stones of the same color. On\u00a0the diagram below you can see a\u00a0few chains of\u00a0black stones.<\/p>\n

\"how_to_capture_stones_in_go.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The marked intersections are the placements, where white needs to play to capture black stones. These placements are called liberties<\/strong>. You can also notice that if the stones are placed in the corners or at the edges of the board, they will not have as many liberties as if they were laying in the center.<\/p>\n

Knowing the capturing rule,\u00a0we can understand what happens on\u00a0the 2nd diagram.\u00a0White can play on\u00a0the right side of\u00a0the board. Then black will try to\u00a0surround and capture white’s stone. If\u00a0black succeeds, they will defend their territory.<\/p>\n

Capturing stones also affects the final score of\u00a0the game.<\/strong>\u00a0Every captured stone is\u00a0counted as\u00a0one point, just like every empty intersection surrounded by\u00a0a\u00a0player. Moreover, if\u00a0a\u00a0stone can potentially be\u00a0captured, a\u00a0player doesn’t necessarily need to\u00a0actually capture it. At\u00a0the end of\u00a0the game they can just claim that the stone is\u00a0dead.<\/p>\n

Dead stones are taken off of the board and each of them is counted as one point. If the opponent argues that a stone is not dead, the first player needs to prove and show that they can capture the stone.<\/p>\n

Komi rule and impossible draws in Go<\/h2>\n

In Go the player with black stones\u00a0has an\u00a0advantage<\/strong> because of\u00a0playing the first move.\u00a0To compensate this advantage –\u00a0a fixed number of\u00a0points is added to\u00a0white’s score. These added points are called komi<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Komi\u00a0is usually set as\u00a06,5 or 7,5 points (the difference is explained in another article: Go rules – Japanese vs Chinese<\/a><\/u>). The difference between Japanese and Chinese rules doesn’t affect the gameplay, it’s basically only a very small difference in counting points. This tutorial and the following materials on the blog are prepared for the Japanese rules.<\/p>\n

Komi serves also another goal. Because of\u00a0the half point a Go match\u00a0cannot ever end in\u00a0a\u00a0draw.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Watch the 2\u00a0min video summarizing the rules and showing how to count points in Go<\/strong><\/h4>\n