The game of "GO" is played on a board with vertical and horizontal lines,equal in number. The number of players is 2 but sometimes (in pair-go for example) can be more. A game starts with choosing the colour (black or white) after which each player makes a move at a time. A move consists in placing a "stone" on an empty intersection of the board, not in moving a stone already played (which is not permitted). In this diagram I marked with numbers the moves each player has made. Please take a look.

  The purpose of the game is to surround empty spaces on the board to make "territory" and to capture the opponent's stones. The more the better! Each intersection inside your territory is worth one point and each captured stone is also worth one point.At the end of the game the player who has more points wins by the difference. Following are some useful tips&tricks that are helpful to understand the way "go" goes :)

  Now let's learn something about stones. All the stones have the same value so there are no kings or queens, just soldiers (if you want...). The difference is made according to the location of a stone. It can be a vital stone or a stone that can be sacrificed. As I told you a stone cannot be moved so you give it a certain value in the moment you put it on the board. But stones can be captured! ONLY THEN, BY BECOMING A PRISONER IT WILL BE REMOVED FROM THE BOARD ! So prisoners are kept separately. But how to capture? Let's look at the diagram! The three black stones are placed in different points of the board. The adjacent points of a stone are called "liberties"(marked with triangles). So here we have three stones with 2, 3, and 4 liberties. ONLY THE EMPTY POINTS THAT ARE CONNECTED TO A STONE WITH A LINE ARE LIBERTIES ! So no liberty on a diagonal...

  When a stone has no liberty its captured and removed from the board. So in this figure if white gets to play on the points marked with triangles, black stone(s) are captured. The board will look like this...

Big difference isn't? Let's move further...

  We'll never leave a stone to die! So, when a stone is in danger we can add one more to it or two, three and so on until we feel safe. Now we have a GROUP of stones, much harder to capture. A group is made of stones connected with lines (again, two stones on diagonal are not connected so ...no group) and the liberties are put together. Here we have three groups with 2, 3, and 4 stones which have many liberties (please count by yourself the triangles for each group). Of course, in a game there are no such triangles so we have to get used to distinguish groups and count their liberties. But groups can be captured too if the opponent is allowed to occupy all liberties...Imagine white stones instead of triangles and all black stones imprisoned...Terrible!

  Let's take a look at this figure: Black's 3 marked stones are not connected with other black stones and they have only one liberty (marked with a triangle). On the other hand, if we place there a white stone it will have zero liberties (and looks like a suicide). Well , suicide is permitted only in this kind of shape when is possible to capture some stone(s).

<== See diagrams... ==>

How about these shapes? All black stones are surrounded but they can't be captured! White can play only a move at a time so he can't play neither A or B (because suicide without capture is forbidden). The conclusion: BLACK STONES ARE ALIVE!The A and B spots are called "eyes" and a group with two eyes is alive. (Same for C-D and E-F)

Please remember this trick!