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How to Play Go

A Concise Introduction

by Richard Bozulich & James Davies

Copyright © 2016 by Richard Bozulich

Buy the full book at gobooks.com

Preface

Go is the ancient oriental board game, play by millions throughout the world. The rules are so easy a child of five can learn to play, but true mastery requires years of intensive study. Like nature, its simple elements — wood and stone, line and circle, black and white — build into complex structures.

Go is the perfect game for developing left- and right-brain abilities — intuition and pattern recognition as well as brute-force analysis. In addition, the richness of its strategic concepts allows go to be used as a model for real-life decision making.

Go also teaches the value of patience and it shows how to balance aggressiveness and restraint for maximum gain.

This book is a straightforward introduction to the game. The ten basic rules are clearly explained in just a few pages. Problems are interspersed throughout the book to drive home the concepts being presented. After the rules are thoroughly explained, there is a section on opening strategy, followed by a section on tactics. Everything that is essential to playing the game is included with ample references to resources that will aid you in continuing your study of this ancient and profound game.

Copyright Page

How to Play Go
A Concise Introduction

Richard Bozulich & James Davies

Copyright © 2016 by Richard Bozulich

All rights reserved according to international law. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise copied for public or private use without the written permission of the publisher.

Published by
Kiseido Publishing Company
Kagawa 4–48–32, Chigasaki-shi
Kanagawa-ken, Japan 253–0082

ISBN of the printed version: 978–4–906574–39–1

Converted to Go Books format by Anders Kierulf.

Contents

How to Play Go
A Concise Introduction

Preface

Copyright Page

A Glossary of Go Terms Used in this Book

Chapter One: The Equipment

Chapter Two: The Rules

Problems 1 to 30

Chapter Three: The Ko Rule

Chapter Four: The End of the Game

The chapters in gray are included only in the full book.

Chapter Five: Example Games

Chapter Six: Opening Strategy

Chapter Seven: Elementary Tactics

Ladders

Problems 31 to 34

Nets

Problems 35 to 38

Sacrifice Tactics

Problems 39 to 46

Chapter Eight: Life and Death

False Eyes

Eye Spaces and Eye Shape

Chapter Nine: Handicap Go Strategy

Chapter Ten: Rankings and Handicap

Chapter Eleven: The Endgame

Chapter Twelve: Further Study

Go Books Published by Kiseido

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About SmartGo Books

A Glossary of Go Terms Used in this Book

Atari — When all the intersections except one directly adjacent to a stone or a group of stones are occupied by the opponent, the stone or group is said to be in ‘atari’ and the opponent can capture them on the next move.

Dan — A ranking scale running from shodan (1-dan) up to 9-dan.

Gote — A move that your opponent can ignore. A gote move is usually defensive, so it will pose little or no threat to your opponent.

Joseki — During the opening, skirmishes often break out, starting in the corners and developing along the sides. These skirmishes are called josekis.

Komi — Compensation points added to ones side’s territory at the end of the game. Typically, 6½ points are added to White’s territory in an even game, to compensate for the disadvantage of moving second.

Kyu — An amateur ranking scale running from about 35-kyu (a complete beginner) up to 1-kyu, the highest rank before shodan (1-dan).

Nigiri — A procedure for choosing who plays first in an even game.

Nihon Ki-in — Japan Go Association. A non-profit foundation based in Tokyo with over 300 active professional players. Only players belonging to this organization or to the Western Japan Go Association are allowed to compete in newspaper- or corporate-sponsored Japanese tournaments.

Tesuji — A skillful move that accomplishes some clear tactical objective.

Sanrensei — An opening pattern in which one player occupies the three star points on one side of the board.

San-san — The 3–3 point in any of the four corners.

Sente — A move that your opponent cannot ignore, otherwise he will suffer an unacceptable loss.

Seki — Dual life. A situation in which neither of two groups of opposing stones has two eyes, but neither side can attack the other without losing his stones.

Chapter One
The Equipment

Go is usually played on a board with 19 vertical lines and 19 horizontal lines, making up a grid of 361 intersections.

The playing pieces are lens-shaped black and white discs called stones. A standard go set consists of 181 black stones and 180 white stones.

The stones are placed in containers called bowls. There are two bowls to a set. One bowl is for the black stones, the other is for the white ones.

The photo on the front cover of this book shows an example of a go set. Go equipment comes in a variety of qualities, from inexpensive sets to sets costing tens of thousands of dollars. You can find a list of equipment by going to Kiseido’s web site at http://www.kiseidopublishing.com. Actually, you don’t really need a go set to study or even to play on. You can easily download to your computer a program called Go Write 2 that allows you to play games on and to lay out positions for study or analysis (http://www.gowrite.net/GOWrite2_download.html). On iPhone and iPad, you can use the apps and books by Smart Go (https://smartgo.com and https://gobooks.com). You can also play games online free of charge with opponents from all over the world by going to the KGS go server (http://www.gokgs.com). The strength of the players there range from beginners to professional level players.

A game of go can also be played on small boards, without any change in the rules, and beginners are encouraged to play their first games on a 9x9 board. Since a game can be finished in about ten minutes, this is a good way for beginners to familiarize themselves with the rules and to learn some basic tactics. You might then want to play on a 13x13 board before progressing to the standard 19x19 board.

Chapter Two
The Rules

Rule 1. The board is empty at the start of the game.

Rule 2. Black makes the first move after which White and Black alternate.

Rule 3. A move consists of placing a stone of one’s own color on any empty intersection of the board, as long it is a legal move.

Dia. 1

Dia. 2

Dia. 3

Diagrams 1 to 3 show a typical opening on a 9x9 board. Once played, the stones stay where they are (unless removed by capture: Rule 5); they cannot be moved to other points. It is legal to play on the edge, that is, on the first line. Except for minor exceptions caused by Rule 6, a move is unrestricted — you may play anywhere you want.

Rule 4. A player may pass his turn at any time.

Passing usually occurs in only two situations:
1) near the end of the game;
2) at the beginning of a handicap game.

Rule 5. A stone or a solidly connected group of stones of one color is captured and removed from the board and kept as prisoners when all the intersections directly adjacent to it are occupied by the enemy. The following three diagrams show how capturing is done.

Dia. 4. Atari

Dia. 4. White stones occupy three of the four points directly adjacent to the black stone; that is, three of its four liberties. The black stone is said to be in atari.

Dia. 5. Capture

Dia. 6. Result

Dia. 5. White 1 captures the black stone by occupying its last liberty and removes it from the board.

Dia. 6. This is the result. Captured stones are kept separately, customarily in the up-turned lids of the bowls.

Diagrams 7 to 9 illustrate capture on the edge of the board.

Dia. 7. Atari

Dia. 8. Capture

Dia. 9. Result

Diagrams 10 to 12 illustrate capture in the corner of the board.

Dia. 10. Atari

Dia. 11. Capture

Dia. 12. Result

Diagrams 13 to 15 show a solidly connected group of two stones being captured.

Dia. 13. Atari

Dia. 14. Capture

Dia. 15. Result

A solidly connected group of five stones is being captured in Dias. 16 to 18.

Dia. 16. Atari

Dia. 17. Capture

Dia. 18. Result

Rule 6. A player cannot capture his own stones. That is, suicide is illegal.

Dia. 19. Atari

According to Rule 6, it is illegal to capture one’s own stones. In Dia. 19, White’s two stones are in atari.

Dia. 20. White 1: illegal

Dia. 21. Black 1: legal

He can’t save them by connecting at 1 in Dia. 20 because he plays on his only liberty, and his three stones are left without any liberties. Such a move is illegal. In other words, ‘self-capture is illegal’ or ‘suicide is illegal.’ However, if it is Black’s turn, he can capture the two white stones by playing 1 in Dia. 21.

Dia. 22. Atari

Dia. 23. White captures.

Capture of the enemy’s stones takes precedence over self-capture. In Dia. 22, Black’s two stones are in atari. When White 1 is played in Dia. 23, neither it nor the two black stones to its right have any liberties, but it is the black stones, rather than White 1, that are captured.

Dia. 24. Result

The result is shown in Dia. 24. If Black wants to capture at ‘a’, he may, but it isn’t obligatory.

30 Problems for Capturing and Rescuing Stones

Here are 30 problems. After working your way through them, you should completely understand how to capture stones as well as how to rescue endangered ones.

Problem 1

Black to capture a stone

Answer 1

Dia. 1. Correct

Black 1 in Dia. 1 captures a stone.

Dia. 2. Wrong

If Black plays 1 in Dia. 2, White can rescue his stone by extending to 2.

Problem 2

Black to capture a stone

Answer 2

Dia. 1. Correct

Black 1 in Dia. 1 captures a stone.

Dia. 2. Wrong

If Black connects at 1 in Dia. 2, White can rescue his stone by connecting at 2.

Problem 3

Black to capture a stone

Answer 3

Dia. 1. Correct

Black 1 in Dia. 1 captures a stone.

Dia. 2. Wrong

If Black connects at 1 in Dia. 2, White can rescue his stone by connecting at 2.

Problem 4

Black to capture two stones

Answer 4

Dia. 1. Correct

Black 1 in Dia. 1 captures two stones.

Dia. 2. Wrong

If Black plays 1 in Dia. 2, White can rescue his stones by extending to 2.

Problem 5

Black to capture two stones

Answer 5

Dia. 1. Correct

Black 1 in Dia. 1 captures two stones.

Dia. 2. Wrong

If Black extends to 1 in Dia. 2, White can rescue his stones by connecting at 2.

Problem 6

Black to capture two stones

Answer 6

Dia. 1. Correct

Black 1 in Dia. 1 captures the two marked stones.

Dia. 2. Wrong

If Black extends to 1 in Dia. 2, White can rescue his two stones by capturing two of Black’s with 2.

Problem 7

Black to capture two stones

Answer 7

Dia. 1. Correct

By playing 1, Black can capture two white stones.

Dia. 2. Wrong

If Black ataries with 1 in Dia. 2, White can rescue his stones and capture two of Black’s with 2.

Problem 8

Black to capture two stones

Answer 8

Dia. 1. Correct

Black 1 in Dia. 1 captures two stones.

Dia. 2. Result

Diagram 2 shows the result of this capture.

Problem 9

Black to capture three stones

Answer 9

Dia. 1. Correct

Black 1 in Dia. 1 captures three stones.

Dia. 2. Wrong

If Black connects at 1 in Dia. 2, White can rescue his stone by connecting at 2.

Problem 10

Black to capture three stones

Answer 10

Dia. 1. Correct

Black 1 in Dia. 1 captures three stones.

Dia. 2. Wrong

If Black plays 1 in Dia. 2, White can rescue his endangered stones by connecting at 2.

Problem 11

Black to capture three stones

Answer 11

Dia. 1. Correct

Black 1 in Dia. 1 captures three stones.

Dia. 2. Wrong

If Black plays 1 in Dia. 2, White can rescue his stones and capture four of Black’s with 2.

Problem 12

Black to capture a stone

How can Black capture one white stone?

Answer 12

Dia. 1. Correct

Black 1 in Dia. 1 captures a stone.

Dia. 2. Wrong

If Black extends to 1 in Dia. 2, White can rescue his stone by connecting at 2.

Problem 13

Black to capture five stones

Answer 13

Dia. 1. Correct

Black 1 in Dia. 1 captures five stones.

Dia. 2. Wrong

If Black plays 1 in Dia. 2 to get out of atari, White can rescue his five stones by connecting at 2.

Problem 14

Black to capture five stones

Answer 14

Dia. 1. Correct

Black 1 in Dia. 1 captures five stones.

Dia. 2. Wrong

If Black connects at 1 in Dia. 2, White can rescue his five stones by capturing four stones with 2.

Problem 15

Rescue the marked stone.

Answer 15

Dia. 1. Correct

Black can rescue his stone in atari by connecting at 1 in Dia. 1.

Dia. 2. Wrong

If Black ataries with 1 in Dia. 2, White can capture with 2.

Problem 16

Rescue the marked stone.

Answer 16

Dia. 1. Correct

Black 1 in Dia. 1 rescues his stone in atari.

Dia. 2. Wrong

If Black ataries with 1 in Dia. 2, White can capture a stone with 2.

Problem 17

Rescue the marked stones.

Answer 17

Dia. 1. Correct

Black 1 in Dia. 1 rescues his two stones in atari.

Dia. 2. Wrong

If Black ataries with 1 in Dia. 2, White can capture two stones with 2.

Problem 18

Rescue the marked stone.

Answer 18

Dia. 1. Correct

Black 1 in Dia. 1 rescues his stone in atari.

Dia. 2. Wrong

If Black ataries with 1 in Dia. 2, White can capture a stone with 2.

Problem 19

Rescue the marked stones.

Answer 19

Dia. 1. Correct

Black 1 in Dia. 1 rescues his three stones in atari.

Dia. 2. Wrong

If Black ataries with 1 in Dia. 2, White can capture three stones with 2.

Problem 20

Rescue the marked stones.

Answer 20

Dia. 1. Correct

Black 1 in Dia. 1 rescues his two stones in atari.

Dia. 2. Wrong

If Black ataries with 1 in Dia. 2, White captures two stones with 2.

Problem 21

Rescue the marked stones.

Answer 21

Dia. 1. Correct

Black 1 in Dia. 1 rescues his three stones in atari.

Dia. 2. Wrong

If Black ataries with 1 in Dia. 2, White captures three stones with 2.

Problem 22

Can White rescue the marked stones?

Answer 22

Dia. 1. Correct

White can’t escape. If he crawls along the first line with 1 to 10 in Dia. 1, Black captures eight stones with 12.

Dia. 2. Wrong

After White 1 in Dia. 2, if Black ataries from the right with 2, White can escape with 3 and 5.

The full book contains additional problems.

Chapter Three
The Ko Rule

Rule 7. No former board position may be recreated.

This rule requires that every move must create a new position. Its main effect is to prevent endless cycles of capture and recapture in so-called ko positions like the one in Dia. 25.

Dia. 25. A ko position

Dia. 26. White captures

Dia. 27. Result

In the position in Dia. 25, suppose it is White’s turn. He can capture a black stone by playing 1 in Dia. 26. The result is shown in Dia. 27.

If Black now captures with 2 in Dia. 28 —

Dia. 28. Illegal move

Dia. 29. Same position

The position in Dia. 29 results. But this is the same board position as Dia. 25. By Rule 7, this is not allowed, so Black must play a move somewhere else.

Dia. 30. 3 resolves the ko

For example, he could play 2 in Dia. 30. That gives White the chance to connect at 3, resolving the ko.

Dia. 31. White to play

In Dia. 31, it is White’s turn to play. A ko fight is about to take place around the marked black stone which is in atari.

Dia. 32. A ko threat

If White captures with 1 in Dia. 32, Black can’t immediately recapture because that would revert back to the position in Dia. 31, so he plays elsewhere with Black 2. This move is called a ko threat.

Dia. 33. White captures

If White answers this threat with 3 in Dia. 33, Black can recapture with 4, because the Black 2–White 3 exchange makes this board position different from Dia. 31. It is now White’s turn to make a ko threat.

Dia. 34. Resolving the ko

White cuts with 5 in Dia. 34. Black could ignore White 5 and capture three stones at ‘a’, thereby resolving the ko, but let’s suppose he answers White 5 with 6. White can now recapture the ko with 7. Black must then make another ko threat with 8. Perhaps White will ignore this threat and capture four stones with 9, ending the ko fight. Black gets some compensation with 10.

Chapter Four
The End of the Game

Rule 8. Two consecutive passes end the game. (Or a player may resign.)

Rule 9. At the end of the game, any stone or stones that can’t avoid capture are removed from the board as prisoners without actually being captured.

Rule 10. A player’s score is the vacant points he has surrounded minus the number of prisoners that he has lost or have been captured. High score wins.

Dia. 35
The game is almost over.

The game in Dia. 35 is almost over. Both Black and White have secured their respective territories. During the game, White has captured seven prisoners (indicated by the seven black stones below the diagram) and Black has captured three white stones (indicated by the three white stones below the diagram).

Dia. 36
Filling the neutral points

Black 1 in Dia. 36 does not gain any points, but it does threaten to capture a white stone and start a ko, so White connects with 2. Black 3 and White 4 don’t gain any points either. They are neutral points that are played at the end of the game. There are no more points to be gained, so Black 5 and White 6 pass. According to Rule 8, this ends the game.

Dia. 37
Removing the dead stone

The marked white stone in Dia. 36 is dead: it can’t avoid being captured. Therefore, according to Rule 9, it is removed from the board as a prisoner. The result is shown in Dia. 37. Note that Black now has four white prisoners.

Let’s count the score.

Dia. 38
Black’s territory

Dia. 39
White’s territory

Black has surrounded the vacant points marked ‘x’ in Dia. 38 and White has surrounded the vacant points marked ‘x’ in Dia. 39. These surrounded points are called territory.

Black has 12 points of territory, plus 4 prisoners, for a total of 16 points. White has 10 points of territory, plus 7 prisoners, for a total of 17 points. White wins by one point.

Dia. 40
Prisoners are filled in.

To simplify the counting, the prisoners can be placed on the board inside Black’s and White’s territories as shown by the black and white marked stones in Dia. 40. Count the territories each side has surrounded and you will see that White has 6 points and Black has 5 points. Again, White wins by one point; replacing points with prisoners doesn’t change the score.

These are the ten rules needed to play go. There are a few special positions and kos in which the results are determined by adjudication. They are know as Nihon Ki-in Precedents, but these positions very rarely occur in games.

The rules presented here are the Japanese rules. There are other rules as well, the most important of which are the Chinese rules. Most players in the West use the Japanese rules. However, if you play go in China, you will have to learn the Chinese rules. The main difference between these rules are the counting procedure at the end of the game, but, for all practical purposes, the two rules are equivalent. That is, they do not change the nature of the game. For an exposition of the various rules as well as the Nihon Ki-in Precedents, see The Go Player’s Almanac.

The full book includes chapters on opening strategy, elementary tactics, life and death, handicap go strategy, rankings and handicap, and the endgame.

Chapter Twelve
Further Study

After you have read this book and played a number of games, you should have acquired a knowledge of the basics of the game and be well on your way to becoming a go player. However, to become a strong player, you must do two things: you must learn the basic strategic principles of the opening and develop your analytical ability. For the opening, you should start with Volume One of Kiseido’s Elementary Go Series, In the Beginning: The Opening in the Game of Go. After studying this book, you will have learned most of the basic principles of the opening.

Together with the above book, you should also study all the problems in the first three volumes of the Graded Go Problems for Beginners Series. (The 46 problems in the first part of this book were taken from Volume One of this series.) The first problems are extremely easy, but gradually become more and more difficult. After studying all four volumes of this series, if you can go back and solve any of its 1,387 problem at a glance, your analytical ability will be 1-dan in strength.

You should also continue your study of the opening by learning the basic josekis. During the opening, sharp skirmishes often break out, starting in the corners and developing along the sides. These skirmishes are called josekis. We presented many josekis in Chapter Six on opening strategy, but there are others you should also learn. The second volume of Kiseido’s Elementary Go Series, 38 Basic Josekis, will give you the foundation from which you can expand your knowledge of joseki. You can then use the two volume The 21st Century Dictionary of Basic Josekis as a reference work to add to your repertoire of joseki as it becomes necessary.

For the middle game, the best introduction is Attack and Defense, the fifth volume of Kiseido’s Elementary Go Series. Tesujis (skillful moves that accomplishes some clear tactical objective, which chess players might refer to as ‘brilliancies’) are also an important aspect of the middle game. A good introduction to this subject is the fourth volume of Kiseido’s Elementary Go Series, Tesuji. You should next go on to work through 501 Tesuji Problems, the fourth volume of Kiseido’s Mastering the Basics Series. The problems in this book cover all 45 of the basic tesujis that might arise in your games. Mastery of these problems will greatly improve your go strength.

For improving your middle-game power, as well as your overall understanding of go strategy, it is necessary to know the fundamental principles of the game. These are all covered in the ninth volume of Kiseido’s Mastering the Basics Series, An Encyclopedia of Go Principles.

If you are to become a serious go player, the constant study of life-and-death problems is essential. The study of life-and-death problems will train you to ‘read’ out a position three or four moves ahead. We recommend that you start with The Basics of Life and Death. This book is a thorough introduction to the topic of life and death. In Part One, the basic concept of life and death — eye space — is explained. Next, the three most important tesujis of life and death are introduced: the placement, the hane, and the throw-in tesujis. Along the way, another important concept is presented: shortage of liberties. This concept is important not only in life and death, but also in middle-game fighting. Finally, the rule of bent-four-in-the-corner is analyzed. Interspersed between these sections are 51 problems that will reinforce these concepts and help you to internalize them. Part Two consists of 177 basic life-and-death positions that arise in josekis and skirmishes in the corners and along the sides. These positions are not a random collection of life-and-death problems. Each one is a basic pattern that could easily arise in any of your games. Internalizing these positions and how to handle them will dramatically increase your go strength.

Kiseido and Smart Go publish a large number of life-and-death problem books in English, so there is enough material available to keep the most avid problem solver busy for many years.

While you are studying these books and gaining the theoretical knowledge they provide, you should play as many games as you have time for to gain practical over-the-board experience. Nowadays a person can conveniently play go on the Internet through KGS (http://www.gokgs.com) for free. You can find players there from beginners to professionals. There is a ranking system, so you can plot your progress as you rise through the kyu ranks and eventually reach 1-dan and above.

Finally, playing through professional games is another good way to improve. It will give you a feeling for the flow of the game and examples of good play. The best book for this purpose is Invincible: the Games of Shusaku. All appentice professionals are required to study Shusaku’s games.