Go

Click an intersection to place a stone. Black plays first.

Go Rules

Objective

Surround more territory than your opponent by the end of the game. Capture enemy stones by surrounding them completely.

The Board

Go is played on a grid. Stones are placed on the intersections, not inside the squares. You can choose your board size with the button above:

9×9 – Great for beginners. Games last 15–30 minutes and focus almost entirely on tactics: capturing stones and local fights.
13×13 – Introduces territorial strategy alongside tactics. A good stepping stone before the full board.
19×19 – The standard board. Strategy unfolds over the whole game, and the full depth of Go emerges.

How to Play

Tap an empty intersection to place your stone.
Black always plays first.
Players alternate turns.

Capture

A stone (or connected group of same-color stones) is captured when all of its adjacent intersections are occupied by the opponent.
Captured stones are removed from the board and counted as prisoners.

Ko Rule

You cannot place a stone that recreates the exact board position from the previous move. This prevents infinite loops.

Suicide Rule

You cannot place a stone in a position where it would have no liberties, unless doing so captures enemy stones.

Passing

Instead of placing a stone, a player may Pass. When both players pass consecutively, the game ends.

Scoring

Territory (empty intersections surrounded by your stones) + prisoners captured. Black gives White 6.5 komi points to compensate for moving first. Highest score wins.

History of Go

Origins

Go is one of the oldest board games still played, with origins in ancient China roughly 2,500–4,000 years ago. The earliest written reference dates to around 548 BCE. In Chinese it is called 围棋 (Wéiqí), meaning "encirclement chess."

Spread Across Asia

Go reached Korea around the 5th–7th century CE, where it is called 바둑 (Baduk), and Japan in the 7th century, where it is called 囲碁 (Igo). Japan developed a formal system of professional players, schools, and rankings during the Edo period (1603–1868), which remains the foundation of modern competitive Go.

Philosophy & Culture

Go was traditionally one of the four arts cultivated by Chinese scholars alongside calligraphy, painting, and music. It became deeply embedded in East Asian culture as a pursuit of strategic thinking, patience, and intuition. Its simple rules generate near-infinite complexity — the number of possible Go games vastly exceeds the number of atoms in the observable universe.

Go and Artificial Intelligence

For decades, Go was considered the grand challenge of game AI, believed to be too complex for computers to master. In 2016, DeepMind's AlphaGo defeated world champion Lee Sedol 4–1 — a landmark moment in AI history. Subsequent versions became so dominant that top human professionals acknowledged machines had surpassed them.