Go

How to play

Players alternately place a stone on an intersection, Black first. A stone or connected group is captured when all of its neighbouring points are occupied by enemy stones; captured stones are removed.

• A stone may not be placed where it would have no liberties, unless it captures something (no suicide).
• Superko: you may not play a move that recreates any earlier position of the whole board. This covers the simple ko rule.
• Instead of placing a stone you may pass.

Scoring and finishing

This site uses area scoring (Chinese rules). Your score is the number of your stones on the board plus the empty points that only your stones surround. White receives 7.5 points of komi to compensate for moving second.

When both players pass in a row, the game enters the marking phase. The server suggests which groups are dead; you can click a group to change its status. When both players press Accept the score is counted. If you disagree, either player can press Resume and play continues. Marking has its own 3-minute timer; if it runs out, the current marking is accepted.

Handicap games (2 to 9 extra black stones, komi 0.5, White moves first) are available at unrated tables.