Ok, so since you’re trying to un-pickle your brain - I was hoping I could give you some terms and concepts that might help you understand this landscape better. It’s not another set of rules or guidelines - I’m trying to help you understand how this game works, and what you can do within it. If you’re approaching this game through a chess mindset - it seems like you keep looking for some formula for what you should be DOING, and being frustrated that no one can give you one. Instead, I’m going to help you with what you should be SEEING - putting words to the various actions and moves you will see, so that you can put yourself in context, and figure out your next best step based on that fresh information.
Try to think of Go as a military strategy game - your Go board is the map that displays troop positions - both yours and that of your opponent - as you try to take control over some un-inhabited island out in the ocean, and add it to your empire. Each stone represents a whole garrison town full of soldiers, weapons, food, and equipment you’ve air-dropped onto the island in question - trying to hold that area for the good of your empire until reinforcements arrive.
In isolation those garrisons aren’t very powerful - they can get surrounded and captured fairly quickly. Their power lies in networking - their ability to link up together into larger structures. Their main job isn’t JUST to keep the invaders out - it’s to surround empty points of land, because once the conflict is over the soldiers need to plant crops and grow food. Always keep this in mind - your goal isn’t just to build walls - it’s to stake out as much empty space as possible between those walls.
Your goal is never to drive your opponent from the island - or kill them completely. You win by simply controlling a teensy little bit more - just 0.5 more points of land in order to win. You win by grabbing up what’s available and linking your towns together as efficiently as possible.
As such, it’s useful to think of yourself as a strategist and tactician - deploying your troops, and doing your best to keep them alive at the same time as you’re trying to take over this island. A lot of the terms of this game echo this type of military language. So let’s get down to the nuts and bolts and put names to some of the various things you can do
So your main goal is to turn unclaimed parts of the board into 100% secure territory. The thing is - it doesn’t happen all at once. Areas of the board go through various stages of being secure
Claimed Area - a part of the board occupied by one or two of your stones, may still be vulnerable to invasion / reduction. Here you can say that Black approached or claimed the upper right corner, and White claimed the lower right, etc. As you can see from the score estimator, each stone’s hold on that area is very tenuous.
Enclosed Potential - held more securely by a group or framework of stones, less vulnerable. Here you can say Black’s group enclosed the upper right corner, and White’s group enclosed the lower right. The score estimator shows that each group’s hold on their area has become more secure. The reason the lower right is less certain, is the score estimator knows that Black is about to play next, and it’s being cautious in case Black plays the 3-3 invasion in the lower right.
Secure Territory - all of your stones have secure connections, the opponent may reduce by 1 point at the border, but there is no way this part of the board can change hands. As you can see, the score estimator may be iffy about a few points near the lower border, but other than that, it’s confident that the enclosed areas are secure territory.
Feel free to see my variations here if you want to play around with it
So, your garrison towns start isolated and far apart, but after a few dozen airdrops, they’re surrounded by reinforcements, and they can call their side of the wall secure - they don’t have to worry about it any more.
The other important thing to remember is that some parts of the island are much more valuable than others, because they’re MUCH easier to enclose and defended
So here they’re color coded as follows
Corners - YELLOW - most valuable
Sides - ORANGE - next most valuable
Middle - RED - least valuable, most costly to defend
Think back to the island you’re trying to take over - the ocean forms a natural border at the edges, so you don’t need to build walls there. The parts on the corners take only 2 walls, the sides take 3 walls, the interior takes 4 walls.
When you think about it that way, the island becomes somewhat of a pie-eating contest. There’s all this FREE REAL ESTATE just sitting there, ripe for the taking. If your opponent approaches an unclaimed area, you probably want to send some troops in there as well, just to make sure you grab some portion that area. However, once you’ve finished that particular interaction (i.e. - settled your stones, made a base) your next best move might be to claim a different unclaimed area of the board
So, you start off an empty board and a single stone - let’s say you have Black.
You have the whole board open to you so you grab any of the 4 corners, since they are the most valuable beach front real estate - usually that means you play at either the 4-4 point or the 3-4 point on that corner
Once all 4 corners are claimed, you can either choose to
Enclose one of your corners, or
Approach one of your opponent’s corners
Again, you’re taking these actions because you’re trying to put your stones in those parts of the board that are most valuable. Trying to keep as much of your corner for yourself (enclosing) is as valuable as trying to take some portion of your opponent’s corners (approaching)
While you are making choices, your opponent can surprise you and make their own choices as well:
Move 5 - Black approaches White’s corner
Move 6 - White ignores the sente move, and approaches Black’s lower right corner
Move 7 - Black defends with the Kick to enclose more of the corner
Move 8 - White extends up (defending itself by creating more liberties)
Move 9 - Black settles their group to enclose more of the lower part of the corner
Move 10 - White makes a base to enclose part of the right side
So, as I hope you’re noticing, there are LOTS OF CHOICES for each step - approach, enclose, attack, defend. Which one are you supposed to do? Which one is better? Well that’s the thing about Go - there is never going to be one right answer for any of these questions. It all comes down to
- What is your playstyle
- Are you evenly matched with your opponent, or is one more skilled than the other?
- Do you want to roll the dice on a bunch of high risk / high reward gambles, or do you want to grab as much potential as you can in the most safe, straightforward manner?
In this game, you have a list of priorities, and a set of actions that you can take towards those goals. So a big part of Go is telling yourself a story about what happened so that you can figure out what the next best step might be. Let’s talk it through using this example.
So White just played move 10, that means Black has initiative (sente)
Now Black can play it safe and enclose the upper right corner, knowing that White will respond by trying to enclose the left side. This is each side safely grabbing free pie while it’s sitting there for the taking.
Or Black can take a risk, invade the left side at 7D, knowing that White will try to pen it in from the top and bottom left, and it might have to run out to the middle to stay connected because it won’t have room to make life on the left. The funny thing is - the score estimator for both of these variations was just about the same - Black ahead by 0.5 points - still anybody’s game.
Feel free to play around with the demo board and take a look at all the branches of the variations - things can go lots of different ways depending on the choices made along the way
Because there are SO MANY choices available each time sente passes from one player to the other, it’s good to think of this game as a Choose Your Own Adventure story that you’re writing in real time. You have to be able to describe the risk / reward landscape you’re in so you can put yourself in context in terms of
- What’s the next most valuable area of the board
- What is your opponent’s weakest group? (your next best place to attack, or grow in that direction)
- What is your weakest group? (where is your opponent next most likely to attack?)
Here is the full list of game priorities. I wrote these up for the 19x19 game, but they apply to 13x13 very well also:
1: The Opening:
- Claim freely available potential in order of corners > sides > middle
- Create large extensions / prevent large extensions
- Create small extensions, prevent small extensions
As soon as all the edge potential on the board is claimed, we move onto the next set of priorities
2: Early Midgame:
- Expand your claimed potential away from the edge and into the middle
- Push into the middle from both sides of one extension to create an enclosure
- Prevent your opponent from creating an enclosure
- Claim any unsecured edge or corner potential
As soon as half of the remaining potential is claimed, we switch to
3: Late Midgame:
- Expand your frameworks into whatever unclaimed areas remain
- Push tendrils from living groups into poorly secured section of your opponent’s potential to reduce eyespace
- Close up the poorly secured sections of your own frameworks
- Connect any weak groups at risk of getting stranded without making two eyes
As soon as all of the major battles on the board are resolved, we switch to the final set of priorities
4: Endgame:
- Close up the remaining gaps in your borders in such a way that you retain sente for as long as possible (even move sequences) rather than exit in gote (odd move sequences) and pass sente to your opponent
- Play on any points near your borders that could be used to make eye space by your opponent
- Play moves which force your opponent to fill in their eyespace
- Resolve any ko threats
- Fill in any empty dame points (points which do not change the score either way) to make score counting easier
- Both players pass and accept the results
STRONG GROUPS AND WEAK GROUPS
So, a weak group is any group of stones that is at risk of being surrounded if it cannot make two eyes and guarantee life in that part of the board.
Take a look at this example here - White is chasing Black’s left middle group from the top and bottom. Even though there might be reinforcements close, Black has no choice but to run to the middle and connect, because there’s nowhere on the left side where it can make two eyes - White can attack from both sides.
On the other hand, Black’s two other groups on the upper and lower right are both unconditionally alive. White might reduce those groups somehow, but they have enough room near the edge that they could always make some eyes and live. As such, Black can use those groups to attack - to push out from those border and attack White knowing they can’t be surrounded and killed. Strong groups can attack. Weak groups have no choice except to run or capture stones to create eye shape.
CONNECTING OR CUTTING
So, one thing that gets a lot of beginners in trouble is they don’t keep track of their weak groups. Usually this comes from cutting and not thinking about the consequences. What do I mean by cutting?
So in this game, stones can be cut apart and separated - the thing is - usually means that both players have mutually separated groups.
Here, Black has two stones marked with O’s
1: White separates the 2 Black stones
2: Black protects with a Tiger’s Mouth, putting the attacking stone in atari
3: White extends down. Black has 2 cut points at A and B and they can only close one of them
4: When Black connects at A
5: White cuts at B (or vice versa). All the lone stones extend safely away, resulting in four mutually separated groups. Black’s two groups cannot reconnect unless they capture some of the White stones in between.
Beginners who approach the game with an emphasis on fighting and capturing often cut without considering the risks to their cutting stones. More experienced players understand that not all cuts are created equal, and weigh that decision based on the chances their stones face once they’re stranded in enemy territory, and have to run to reinforcements, or make life in a small space.
So, I know that’s a lot but just take your time and see if you can digest that - try to see that Go board as an empty map, and those stones as troops who are counting on you to keep them alive.
See if you can follow those priorities, enclose parts of the board with your groups, push your enclosed potential away from the middle, and grab as much of that island as you can keep. Good luck.