Learn the Game of Go in 5 min [insente]

The game of Go is one of the oldest board games that have ever existed. It’s still incredibly popular being played by millions of people around the world today. Most people that try to learn this game get discouraged fairly quickly because of the abstract and very “sandboxy free form” nature of the game makes it really hard to understand the strategy beyond the basic rules and how to actually start playing.

Basics

Go is a game where two players place black and white pieces called “stones” on the intersections of a grid with the goal of controlling the biggest area. Once placed the pieces can’t move, however, pieces can join together to form a “group”.

Groups

Groups are the collection of two or more stones linked horizontally or vertically but not diagonally. Think of stones like bricks or legos and a group like a structure or a building. Some groups are small some groups are large and the quality of your groups dictates how much of the board you can control.

The key to Go is figuring out how you can maximize the expansion of your groups and stones while limiting your opponent’s expansion. For this reason, Go is often called the “surrounding game”. Learning how to herd your opponent’s stones like sheep into a small part of the board is often a great strategy, but beware in your haze to surround a group your opponent can cut your group apart, and then the fighting begins. When stones or groups fight they are at risk of being captured.

Capturing Stones

Capturing stones is a key strategy in Go. It is the only way to keep aggressive players in check and is the reason that your opponents can’t just plop a stone anywhere in your territory and ruin all your hard work.

Most of the time see a stone has what are called liberties which are the intersections adjacent to it left right up and down. If your opponent occupies all four liberties then your stone is removed from the game and taken prisoner. If your stones are connected in a group they can still be captured but it is much harder. Groups of stones share liberties so if black wanted to capture the white group right now they would need to surround all these points to remove the group from the game.

Illegal Moves

Also if a player can capture stones with their move they could play in a place that would normally be illegal. In the image below white normally would not be able to play in the center of this black group because they would take away all their liberties but if blacks’ other liberties are filled. First one can capture the group, first by playing in that spot since white gains liberties by capturing the move is now legal.

Go includes other creative roles to keep the game challenging and drive it to a conclusion. Here are two of those rules.

The “Ko” rule. Basically, the board can’t ever look the same twice so if you and your opponent get into a fight where you can capture each other in an infinite pattern your opponent must make a move elsewhere before they can come back to recapture.

The “living group” rule a group can become a living group meaning it can not be captured no matter how hard the other person tries. Remember how I said that all group liberties need to be filled to capture a group? There is a way to create a group were filling in all the liberties is impossible and that is by making a group with two separate empty areas called “eyes”. In the image below white needs to fill in both liberties to capture this group but as soon as white places a stone it immediately gets captured, because black swallows one liberty left over. No matter how hard white try they can’t capture this group. Making living groups is key to avoid capture.

End of the Game

So do black and white just keep trying to capture each other forever and when does the game end? The game ends when both players agree that there is nowhere either side can play that gives them points. Points are calculated by counting the empty areas surrounded by each side and adding in each side’s prisoners.

Skilled Go players know instinctively when an area is not worth playing in since they know it would be too heavily fortified or too small to make a living group and usually the game ends peacefully. However feel free as a beginner to try to make a living group anywhere you can, even in an area that looks like your opponent’s territory. Eventually, the game will reach a spot where the only move you can make is playing in your opponent’s area and getting killed or playing in your own area which reduces your empty spaces and costs you points. Usually, at this point of diminishing returns, both players pass and count up the points. Each side counts the spaces they each surround. One point for each space and they add a point for each prisoner stone they hold. The player with the most points wins.

Beginning

When you start the game it’s generally a good idea to play stones evenly across the corners and the sides of the board. If you play too close to each other, you’ll be making too little progress and your opponent will quickly stake out control over the rest of the board. Eventually, your stones will clash through invasions, territory wars, attacks, and walls, and then it’s up to each player’s skill in fighting staying connected, and capturing.

How to Start

To get an edge as a beginner the best way to start is to play on a smaller 9×9 board to get an understanding of how to capture, how to make a living group, and how to fight with your opponent. Once you feel comfortable understanding how to capture groups surrounding them and make points you can move on to bigger board sizes like 13×13 or 19×19. As long as you can balance efficiency and strength making sure you stay connected and always trying to surround your opponent and force them into a smaller area, you should be able to advance through the ranks of Go and learn and have fun at this game for a lifetime.

Want more?

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If you want to be among the first players to try Custom Goban (a new game based on Go with new mechanics), you can follow this link: https://cmgb.li/IUC0h or Sign-Up for Beta.