The board is a grid of lines. You play on the crossings where lines meet, not in the squares. Black goes first, then White, then Black, and so on. One stone per turn.

In more detail: Think of a tic-tac-toe grid, but bigger. The lines are like streets, and the crossings are like street corners. Your stone sits on a corner, not in a block. If you count the crossings on a 9x9 board, there are 81 places to play.

Once you place a stone, it does not move. It stays there until it is captured, or the game ends.

In more detail: This is not chess. There is no moving a piece later to a better spot. That is why every move matters - you are building a wall, one brick at a time, and you cannot move a brick once it is down.

An empty crossing right next to a stone is a liberty - breathing room. A single stone in the middle has 4 liberties. A stone on the edge has 3. A stone in the corner has 2.

In more detail: Put your hand on a stone and count the empty spots touching it up, down, left, right - not diagonals. That number is how many breaths it has. Stones touching each other share breaths, like a group holding hands. More stones together can have more breaths, or fewer, depending on shape.

If you fill up all of a stone's liberties, that stone comes off the board. That is a capture. Stones next to each other of the same colour count as one group, and share liberties.

In more detail: Imagine surrounding a house so every door is blocked. No door left, the people inside have to leave. In Go, you block every empty crossing next to a group, and the whole group comes off at once, not one stone at a time.

If a group has only 1 liberty left, it is in atari. One more move by the opponent captures it. Atari is a warning, not a capture yet.

In more detail: Atari is like saying "check" in chess. It does not mean you lost the group yet - it means you have exactly one move to save it, by adding a liberty, capturing back, or running away. If you ignore atari, you will lose it next turn.

You cannot play a stone that would have no empty spots next to it, unless that move captures an enemy group first. That is called suicide, and it is not allowed.

In more detail: Imagine one empty crossing, with White stones on all four sides of it - up, down, left, right. If Black plays in that empty middle spot, the new Black stone has zero empty spots next to it. It would die the instant it lands, so the game will not let you play it.

When it IS allowed: Same picture, but one of those White stones is already in atari - it has only that middle spot as its last liberty. If Black plays there, Black captures that White group first, and that capture opens up empty spots next to the new Black stone. So Black lives. Capture first, then you are allowed. No capture, no play - that is all suicide means.

If you capture one single stone, your opponent cannot take it straight back on the next move. They must play somewhere else first, then they can come back. That stops the game going back and forth forever.

In more detail: Picture two stones taking turns capturing each other in the same two spots, forever. Ko stops that loop. You take, I must do something else somewhere else first - that something else is called a ko threat - and only then can I take back, if the spot is still there.

Surround empty crossings with your stones, and those empty crossings are your territory. At the end, you count your stones plus your territory. More is better.

In more detail: Territory is empty land you have fenced off. If only your stones touch that empty area, and the opponent cannot get in without being captured, it is yours. At the end, add up: your stones on the board, plus your fenced empty points. Bigger total wins.

If there is no good move left, you pass. Two passes in a row ends the game, and then the board is scored.

In more detail: Passing is not giving up. It is saying "every move I could make would hurt me more than help me, so I will skip my turn." If both players agree by passing one after the other, there is nothing useful left to play, so the game ends and we count.

Corners first, then sides, centre last. A corner stone is already helped by the edge, so it is the most efficient place to start.

In more detail: A corner needs only two walls to fence it, because the edge of the board is already a wall for you. A side needs three walls. The centre needs four walls all around. So corners are cheapest to claim, sides next, centre is the most expensive and the last place to fight for.

Miyagi lessons in this game use the words above - capture, atari, ko, liberties, corners first. If a lesson feels confusing, come back here and re-read that one step. Lessons are only on 9x9 and 13x13 boards, because 19x19 is advanced.

In more detail: A Miyagi lesson is just one of these rules, applied to the move you just played. Example: if Miyagi says "Good - Capture", go back to step 4. If he says "Weak - Self-atari", go back to step 5 and step 3, and count the liberties your group had left after your move. The lesson title tells you which step to re-read.