Board and setup
This site uses a 9×9 grid of intersections; Black moves first.
Abstract strategy / GO
Go
Connect, cut and surround territory across the board.
Also known as: Baduk, Weiqi
Go starts with placing stones and claiming territory, gradually revealing the give-and-take of connection and whole-board judgment.
—online now · 0 matching
Supports ranked matches, friend invites, AI opponents, spectating.
Play instantly in your browser · guests welcome
GOABOUT THE GAME
About the game
Go originated in China and later spread to Japan, the Korean peninsula and beyond, taking root locally under names such as go, igo and baduk. Its exact date of origin remains hard to pin down.
Black and white stones on a grid of intersecting lines form an extremely minimal foundation, while connecting, cutting and surrounding territory give every game its own whole-board character.
Reference：www.nihonkiin.or.jp ↗
Rules
Go — How to play
Youzai Board Game Club — The server implementation governs play here; tournament and other site rules may differ.
Making a move
Orthogonally connected stones share liberties. Groups with no liberties are removed. Suicide and immediate single-ko recapture are forbidden; passing is allowed.
Winning and draws
After consecutive passes, score stones plus empty points surrounded by one colour; White receives 7.5 komi.
Rules on this site
The server checks only simple ko and has no separate dead-stone confirmation step.
Helpful examples
- Stones of the same colour that are orthogonally adjacent form a group; when a group’s last liberty is occupied, the entire group is removed from the board.
- You may not play on an occupied intersection, nor play a move that leaves your own group with no liberties while capturing nothing.
- Final scoring counts your own stones on the board plus empty points adjacent only to your colour; empty points adjacent to both colours score for neither side.
Complete beginner guide
From setup to the end of the game
Read these steps in order to complete your first game. This guide combines public rules with this site’s server implementation; where versions differ, this site’s ruling applies.
Placing stones and liberties
This site uses a 9×9 board, with Black playing first and White second, placing stones on empty intersections. The empty points orthogonally adjacent to a stone are its liberties; connected stones of the same colour share the liberties of the whole group.
Capturing example
If all four orthogonal neighbours of an isolated stone are occupied by the opponent, it has no liberties and is removed from the board. If your move removes the last liberty of an opposing group, that group is captured first, and only then is your own group checked for liberties.
Ko and passing
You may not play a move that leaves your own group with no liberties and captures nothing. Immediately after a single-stone ko capture, you may not recapture on the very next move. You may pass instead; the game ends after both players pass in a row. This site only checks this simple ko rule, not superko (whole-board position repetition).
Scoring on this site
At the end of the game, the score simply counts your stones on the board plus empty points surrounded only by your colour, with White receiving a 7.5-point komi bonus. This site has no separate dead-stone confirmation step, so any disputed groups still on the board should be resolved before ending the game.
General rules reference：www.nihonkiin.or.jp ↗