The Rules of Go or Wei Chi

This game has been well-known to Asian people for centuries if not thousands of years. It was considered a great brain trainer, and its rules provided players with the opportunity to develop strategic thinking and various tactics to win. In Japan, it is known as Go, the board game; in China, its Chinese name is Wei Chi, and in Korea, people call it Padouk.

Let’s learn the basics of how to play Go to experience its meditative yet challenging gameplay and multiple Go board game strategies in this article.

Go the Board Game Objective

The main objective of Go is to surround as many opponent’s stones as possible and capture as many territories on the playfield as you can. For this, small stones of white and black colors are used, and the task of each player is to create groups of them by placing them one by one at their turn on the intersections of the playfield.

“Go is the art of silence and invasion. Here, the winner is not the one who attacks, but the one who wraps around.”

Go Setup

What do you need to play Go Wei Chi? This game is intended for 2 players and the main setup includes:

• A square board divided into sections by horizontal and vertical lines. For the Go game, board dimensions are typically 46 x 43 cm and it has 19 vertical and 19 horizontal lines. The board is called the Goban. If you only start to learn how to play Go, we recommend you use smaller boards (they can be 13×13 lines, 9×9 lines, or even 5×5) or use a section of a standard Goban with the dimensions 9×9 lines.
• The stones of white and black colors. In the Go set of 19×19 lines, there are 181 black and 180 white stones.
• The cup of stones you captured.
• The scoresheet to record the game score.

The Main Go the Game Rules

What should you know before you start your Go game? The Go game rules are quite complex, but you can learn them if you know a bit more about the main terms and actions. Your primary task is to set your stones on the board’s intersections to form lines, groups, or complex objects made of stones of your color and at once, you have to capture your opponent’s stones by surrounding them with yours.

The Main Terms Used in Go Wei Chi

Let’s first check the main terms used in Go.

• Group is the name for stones of a similar color placed orthogonally on the intersections of lines. For example, two stones of black color if placed one by one vertically is a group. If you add one more to them horizontally, it is also a group. Please, keep in mind that diagonally connected stones are not a group.
• Eyes are points inside the territory occupied by a group of stones where no stones are placed.
• Liberties are free points which are placed orthogonally to the group. Thus, a single stone has 4 liberties above, beyond, to the left and to the right. For a bigger group, the number of liberties is higher.
• Ko is a term used for no-win situations. For example, if your stone is set near the board’s edge and surrounded by the opponent’s stones, and after it is picked by the opponent you still place your stone in that place, it is Ko. You cannot play your stone on the same point as a lose-lose situation leads to your stone’s loss.
• Seki is the term for a situation when a player cannot place their stones on a certain territory because this may lead to an opponent capturing this territory or stones.
• Dame points are neutral areas between the territories captured by opponents and they do not take part in calculating the points.

The Main Variants of Actions

So, here are Go the game rules to help you start playing it.

1. The black color always starts. Typically in Go, a stronger player or more experienced one plays for whites and a weaker player starts the game with blacks. In some versions, a player who plays whites gets 7 points as a handicap (it is called Komi).
2. Each player sets their stones one by one. Each turn allows only one stone to be set.
3. The main actions you can take are either to surround a territory with your stones (the number of intersections you are surrounded by your stones is the number of points you get) or to capture your opponent’s stones by surrounding them and taking all their liberties.
4. The stones which are fully surrendered by the opponent are discarded from the board and taken by the capturer to get points for them.
5. The game lasts until all the territories are captured, no more allowed actions can be made, or (rarely) until all the stones of one player are surrounded and captured.

Strategies to Apply

It is a must to choose your Go game strategy to gain success. These strategies are diverse and you can select the one you consider the best for you.

• Capturing corners is the simplest strategy for a beginner as corners have two boundaries at once.
• The connection and separation strategy is intended to create groups of your color and prevent the development of the opponent’s groups.
• Attacks on the opponent’s stones are often a winning strategy.

Calculating the Score

Once a player has no opportunity to act, he says ‘Pass’. If both players pass, the game is over and it’s time to calculate the points. For the calculation, you should add your handicap points if you have them to the points you get for conquered territory (1 point per 1 intersection of the surrounding area), and to the points for your opponent’s stones you captured (1 point per 1 stone). Then the results of the calculation are compared.

At last, when the score is calculated, you can decide who’s the winner. The player that managed to capture more opponent’s stones and surround more territories is a winner in Go.

Conclusion

The board game Go is quite complex yet extremely challenging. Often, it is considered as a predecessor of chess and it requires no less strategic thinking to gain success. Yet, once you learn its rules and practice a little, you can develop your strategies, get fun from challenging battles on the field, and hold tournaments with your friends.

Just try it, and you’ll add it to your board game collection.