The rules of Go, on six pages
Go has five rules. That is not a marketing line, it is the whole truth. Place a stone, count liberties, capture, do not repeat, count. Everything else that gets said about Go follows from those five sentences and is not part of them.
Most guides still manage to lose you. They open with four thousand years of history, move on to joseki, and somewhere in between you give up before the first stone is down.
We tried it the other way round.
Six pages. Ten minutes. Then you play.
The new Ikigo guide explains Go the way people actually learn it. First what you are trying to do, then how a stone breathes, then how it dies. Two eyes. Ko. Counting. Every rule comes with a diagram so you never have to guess what is meant.
It is written for the 9 by 9 board and not for 19 by 19. A game takes twenty minutes instead of two hours, and everything that makes Go what it is already happens. Lose on the small board and you can see why. On the big one it takes weeks before you notice.
What is in it
- What the game is actually about, and why capturing is not the point
- Liberties, chains, capturing, the forbidden move
- Two eyes, the most important shape in the whole game
- The ko rule and the reason it exists
- How a game ends and how it is scored
- Five sentences for your first game that help more than opening theory
There is also a section on looking after your board, because natural slate and real wood want different treatment.
Free, with or without an order
The PDF is there to download. No account, no newsletter, no email address. If you own an Ikigo set it comes with it anyway. If you do not, take it all the same.
Also available in German and French.
If you are looking for a board afterwards
We build them in Bavaria from natural slate and regional wood, in small numbered editions. The 9 by 9 in slate is the beginner board this guide is written for.