The most spatial game there is — stones, lines, and breathing room. Seven short, interactive lessons that you can actually click.
Go has almost no rules: place a stone, capture stones with no liberties. Everything else — territory, influence, life and death — emergesfrom the geometry of stones on a grid. That's why it's so spatial, and why it's best learned by clicking, not reading. Each lesson below is a live board.
Stones live on the line crossings, not the squares. Black moves first, then players alternate.
Open lesson →Every stone breathes through its empty neighbours. Count the liberties and you understand life.
Open lesson →Fill the last liberty and the stones come off the board. One liberty left is called atari.
Open lesson →Two ways to catch a running stone: chase it in a ladder until it hits the edge, or trap it in a loose net.
Open lesson →A group with two separate eyes can never be captured. This is the single most important idea in Go.
Open lesson →Capture one stone and you can't take it straight back. The one rule that stops the game looping forever.
Open lesson →Surround empty space to claim it. Your score is your territory plus the stones you captured.
Open lesson →Start with the board itself — where stones go and why it matters.
Begin lesson 1 →