Go on a 9 by 9 board of 81 points is played by placing stones on line intersections and capturing groups by removing every empty point beside them, called liberties: a lone corner stone has 2 liberties, an edge stone 3 and a centre stone 4. Stones never move once placed, and the winner is the player whose stones plus enclosed empty points cover the larger area, after a small bonus to the second player. It needs a scratched grid and about 40 pebbles of each of two colours.
Go on a small board: equipment, the complete rules in short form, a teaching ladder and a scoring example.
Equipment
A 9 × 9 board means 9 lines each way and 9 × 9 = 81 intersections (the stones go on the intersections, not in the squares). With the lines 2.5 cm apart the grid is 8 × 2.5 cm = 20 cm across (spacing chosen to suit your stones; it is a convenience, not a rule). Each stone should be a little smaller than the line spacing. All 81 points can hold at most 81 stones at once; about 40 of each colour is enough.
Rules
- Play. Black moves first; players alternate placing one stone on an empty intersection. A player may pass.
- Liberties. A liberty is an empty point directly next to a stone or a connected group of the same colour (up, down, left, right, not diagonal). Connected stones share their liberties.
- Capture. When you remove the last liberty of an opposing group, you capture and remove it.
- Suicide. You may not place a stone that leaves your own group with no liberties, unless that stone captures an opposing group.
- Ko. You may not make a move that returns the board to the position it had just before the opponent’s last move. This stops endless repetition.
- End. The game ends when both players pass in succession.
Counting The Liberties
A lone stone has the empty points above, below, left and right of it:
- In the centre, 4 liberties
- On an edge, 3 liberties
- In a corner, 2 liberties
So a corner stone is captured by two opposing stones, an edge stone by three, a centre stone by four. This is why the edge and corner are easier to attack.
Scoring By Area
Count each player’s stones on the board plus the empty points that only that player’s stones surround. The player with the larger total wins, with the second player given a bonus called komi to offset moving second. A common 9 × 9 komi is 6.5 or 7 points (recalled; many clubs differ), and a half point removes ties; agree it first.
Worked example. On the 81-point board Black has 45 points of stones and surrounded territory and White has 36 (45 + 36 = 81, nothing left unclaimed). With a komi of 7 White’s score is 36 + 7 = 43 against Black’s 45, and Black wins by 2.
Teach In Stages
- Stage 1, capture Go. Play until the first capture; the first to capture wins. This teaches liberties with no other rules.
- Stage 2, add territory. Then add counting.
- Stage 3, add ko and eyes. A group that has two separate empty points inside it (two “eyes”) cannot be captured, because you cannot fill both.
- Handicap. If players are unequal, the weaker player may take extra moves at the start; agree the number first.
What You Need
- A grid of 9 lines by 9 lines
- About 40 dark and 40 light stones
- Agreement on komi and scoring
Common Mistakes
- Counting diagonals as liberties. They are not.
- Forgetting ko. Repeating a position endlessly spoils the game.
- Playing on the squares. Stones go on the intersections.
- Passing too early. Make sure both players agree the game is over.
What’s Next
- Learn next: Card & Dice Games — games of chance
- Combine with: Inclusive Design — handicaps for mixed skill