Playboard

Learn Go: Free Interactive Go Lessons

Every lesson here is played on the 9×9 board you play matches on. You read a few lines, place a stone, and the board tells you whether it worked. Start with the rules if you have never played. If you know them, go on to capturing, then to life and death: whether a group can be captured at all.

  • 12 lessons
  • 37 min
  • Free, no sign-up
Start the first lesson
Lessons for every game

Unit 1

The rules

Liberties, capture, the two illegal moves (suicide and ko) and how the game is scored, all in one lesson.

  1. Go Rules: Liberties, Capture, Ko and Scoring

    Every rule of Go in one lesson on a real 9×9 board: place stones, count liberties, capture, avoid suicide and ko, and score with komi.5 min

Unit 2

Capturing stones

Atari and how to get out of it, the three classic ways to catch a stone that runs (the ladder, the net and the snapback), and capturing races between groups without eyes.

  1. Atari in Go: How to Escape and Which Way to Run

    A group with one liberty left is in atari. Learn to spot it, run toward open space, capture your way out, and see when running only loses more.4 min

  2. The Ladder in Go: Chase a Stone to the Edge

    In a ladder you atari a stone again and again and zigzag it into the edge. Run one on a real 9×9 board, then spot the stone that breaks it.3 min

  3. The Net in Go (Geta): Capture Without an Atari

    When a ladder fails, a net still catches the stone: one loose move that shuts both ways out. Cast a net on a real 9×9 board, then close it.3 min

  4. Snapback in Go: Give Up One Stone, Capture More

    A snapback gives up one stone so the group that takes it is left in atari. Play the throw-in on a real 9×9 board, and learn when not to take.2 min

  5. Capturing Races in Go (Semeai): How to Win Them

    When two groups without eyes touch, the first to run out of liberties dies. Count liberties, fill the outside ones first, and win a race by one move.3 min

Unit 3

Life and death

Why a group with two eyes can never be captured, why some eyes are false, and the one point that decides whether a small group lives or dies.

  1. Two Eyes in Go: Why a Group With Two Eyes Lives

    An eye is an empty point inside your group. One eye can be filled, two never can. Capture a one-eyed group, make two eyes, and spot a fake.3 min

  2. False Eyes in Go: Why Some Eyes Don't Count

    A false eye looks like an eye but can be filled. Learn to spot one, mend your own, and turn your opponent's eye false on a real 9×9 board.3 min

  3. The Vital Point in Go: Kill or Live in One Move

    One point often decides whether a small group lives. Find the vital point of straight three, bent three and pyramid four, and see why four in a row lives.3 min

Unit 4

First strategy

Why the corners come before the sides and the centre, how stones stay connected and how to cut your opponent's apart, and how to finish a game: borders, passing and dead stones.

  1. Go Strategy: Corners First, Then Sides, Then Centre

    Why the corners come first in Go: the edges do half the work of surrounding territory. Count the stones, then claim a corner on a 9×9 board.2 min

  2. Connect and Cut in Go: Keep Your Stones Together

    Connected stones share their liberties, cut ones fight alone. Mend a cut, cut your opponent apart with a double atari, and spot what can't be cut.3 min

  3. Ending a Game of Go: Borders, Passing and Dead Stones

    Finish a game of Go on Playboard: close every border, fill the neutral points, pass, and capture enemy stones left inside your territory first.3 min