LESSON 01 / 06
Place a stone
Black plays first, then White. Put your stone on an empty intersection, not inside a square. A stone stays where it is unless captured. A 9 × 9 board is a comfortable place to begin.
ZENGOMASTER · ONE STONE AT A TIME
A few simple rules. A lifetime to explore.
Learn the essentials of Go, then put your first stones on the board.
LESSON 02 / 06
Give your stones room to breathe
A liberty is an empty intersection directly above, below, left, or right of a stone. Diagonal points do not count. Stones of the same color touching along a line form a group and share their liberties.
LESSON 03 / 06
Surround to capture
Fill every liberty of an opposing stone or connected group and remove it from the board. A group with one liberty left is in atari. Before attacking, check whether your own stones need one more breath.
LESSON 04 / 06
Connect, and make space
Connected stones share strength. Try to create useful connections and surround empty space. A group with two separate true eyes cannot be captured by ordinary legal play; learning to recognize eyes takes practice.
LESSON 05 / 06
Avoid repeats and self-capture
You cannot place a stone that leaves your own group with no liberties unless the move captures opposing stones first. You also cannot recreate an earlier board position: our practice room uses positional superko.
LESSON 06 / 06
Know when to pause
Pass when you have no useful move left. Two consecutive passes finish the game. Our area estimate adds your stones and enclosed empty intersections; White gets 6.5 extra points called komi. Capture dead stones before passing, because the tool does not decide life and death.
PUT IT INTO PRACTICE
One liberty. One good move.
Black to play. The white stone has one liberty left. Place a black stone to capture it.
Look at the four points beside the white stone.