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Basic things about go. Copied from Wikipedia
Gameplay
The game of Go is played by alternately placing stones on the vacant intersections of a 19x19 rectilinear grid. The two players, Black and White, try to maximize the territory they control by fencing off areas of the board with their stones, capturing any opposing stones that invade these areas, and protecting their own stones from capture
Although the game rules are very simple, the strategy is extremely complex. Go is the deepest game in the world[1]. It is a perfect information, deterministic, strategy game, putting it in the same class as chess, checkers (draughts), and reversi (othello). Though superficially similar to draughts and reversi, go greatly exceeds them in depth and complexity, and transcends even the complexity of chess. Its large board and lack of restrictions allows great scope in strategy. Decisions in one part of the board may be influenced by an apparently unrelated situation in a distant part of the board. Plays made early in the game can shape the nature of conflict a hundred moves later.
The game emphasizes the importance of balance on multiple levels, and has internal tensions. To secure an area of the board, it is good to play moves close together; but to cover the largest area one needs to spread out. To ensure one does not fall behind, expansionist play is required; but playing too broadly leaves weaknesses that can be exploited. Playing too low (close to the edge) secures insufficient territory and influence; yet playing too high (far from the edge) allows the opponent to invade. Many people find the game attractive for its reflection of the contradictory demands of real life.
The game complexity of Go is such that even an introduction to strategy can fill a book, and many good introductory books are available. Go strategy and tactics gives a very brief introduction to the main concepts of Go strategy.
Basic rules
If white plays at A, the black unit loses its last liberty, and is captured and removed from the board.Two players, Black and White, take turns placing a stone (game piece) on a vacant point (intersection) of a 19 by 19 board (grid). Black moves first. Other board sizes such as 13x13 and 9x9 may be used for teaching or quick games, but 19x19 is the standard size. Once played, a stone may not be moved to a different point.
A vacant point adjacent to a stone is a liberty for that stone.
Adjacent stones of the same color form a unit that shares its liberties in common, cannot subsequently be subdivided, and in effect becomes a single larger stone.
Units may be expanded by playing additional stones of the same color on their liberties, or amalgamated by playing a stone on a mutual liberty of two or more units of the same color.
A unit must have at least one liberty to remain on the board. When a unit is surrounded by opposing stones so that it has no liberties, it is captured and removed from the board.
If a stone is played where it has no liberties, but it occupies the last liberty of one or more opposing units, then such units are captured first, leaving the newly played stone at least one liberty.
"Ko rule": A stone cannot be played on a particular point if doing so would recreate the board position that existed after the same player's previous turn.
A player may pass instead of placing a stone, indicating that he sees no way to increase his territory or reduce his opponent's territory. When both players pass consecutively, the game ends and is then scored.
A player's score is the number of empty points enclosed only by his stones plus the number of points occupied by his stones. The player with the higher score wins. (Note that there are other rulesets that count the score differently, yet almost always produce the same result.) For a more detailed treatment, see Rules of Go.
This is the essence of the game of Go. The risk of capture means that stones must work together to control territory, which makes the gameplay very complex and interesting. (Also see strategy.)
Go allows one to play not only even games (games between players of roughly equal strength) but also handicap games (games between players of unequal strength); see optional rules. Without a handicap, even a slight difference in strength will generally be decisive.
Optional rules
Optional Go rules may set the following:
compensation points, almost always for the second player, see komi;
compensation stones placed on the board before alternate play, allowing players of different strengths to play competitively (see Go handicap for more information);
"superko": the ko rule (a move must not recreate the previous position) is extended to disallow any previous position. This prevents complex repetitive situations ("triple ko", "eternal life", etc.) from cycling indefinitely.
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