Go Terms Glossary

Short, plain definitions for terms you'll run into while learning Go. Each one links to the guide that covers it in more depth. New to the game? Start with the rules of Go.

Area scoring: The scoring method this site uses, sometimes called Chinese rules: your score is your stones on the board plus your surrounded empty points, added together. See how scoring works for a full walkthrough.
Atari: A stone or group with exactly one liberty left, one move away from capture. Announcing "atari" is a common courtesy in over-the-board games, but nothing forces the other player to respond. See capture.
Board (goban): The grid Go is played on. Stones sit on the intersections of the lines, not inside the squares. Common sizes are 9x9, 13x13, and 19x19. See which size to start on.
Capture: Removing a stone or group from the board after every one of its liberties has been filled by the opponent. See how capture works.
Connect: Playing a stone that joins two of your own groups into one, so they share liberties and can only be captured together.
Cut: Playing a stone that keeps two of the opponent's groups from connecting, forcing them to defend both separately.
Dame: A neutral point that borders both players and belongs to neither. Under this site's area scoring, filling a dame point is worth a real point, so it's worth playing out. See how scoring works.
Dead stone: A stone or group that has no way to survive and no way to make two eyes, even though nobody has captured it yet. Dead stones are removed before the final count. See how scoring works.
Eye: An empty point completely surrounded by one player's stones. A group with two separate eyes can never be captured. See eyes, explained with diagrams.
False eye: An eye-shaped point where the surrounding diagonal points aren't secure enough, so it can't defend a group on its own the way a true eye can. See true eyes vs. false eyes.
Fuseki: The opening phase of a game, roughly the moves spent claiming corners and sides before contact fighting starts. See how to play your first game.
Gote: A move that doesn't force a response, so the opponent is free to play anywhere next, the opposite of sente. See keeping the initiative.
Group: Stones of the same color connected up/down/left/right (not diagonally). A group shares its liberties and is captured all at once. See liberties and groups.
Handicap: Extra stones given to a weaker player before the game starts, to keep a game between mismatched players competitive. See how Go handles skill gaps.
Hane: A move played diagonally around the end of an opponent's stone or wall, turning the corner rather than blocking straight on.
Joseki: A sequence of moves in a corner that both players play, considered locally balanced for both sides: a well-studied local pattern rather than a single move.
Ko: A shape where a single capture could be immediately recaptured, looping forever. Go forbids the immediate recapture to stop the loop. See the ko rule, with diagrams.
Ko threat: A move made elsewhere, dangerous enough that the opponent has to answer it, while you're temporarily blocked from retaking a ko. See ko.
Komi: A fixed bonus added to White's score at the end of the game, to offset the advantage of Black moving first. This site uses 7.5 points. See why komi exists.
Liberty: An empty point directly next to a stone (up, down, left, or right). A stone or group with zero liberties is captured. See liberties, explained with diagrams.
Life and death: Whether a group can survive to the end of the game. A group is alive once it has two eyes (or a space that guarantees two eyes); otherwise it's still fighting for its life.
Pass: Skipping your turn instead of playing a stone. Two passes in a row end the game. See when the game ends.
Resign: Ending the game early by conceding, usually once the position is clearly lost rather than playing out every last point. See how to play a full game.
Seki: A standoff where two opposing groups are both alive without two eyes, because neither can attack the other without dying first. Rare, but not a bug. See eyes and seki.
Sente: A move the opponent has to answer, letting you keep the initiative and choose what happens next. The opposite of gote. See keeping the initiative.
Star point (hoshi): One of the small marked dots printed on a Go board (corners, sides, and center on 19x19) that mark commonly used reference points. Purely a visual guide; they carry no special rule. See board sizes.
Suicide: Playing a stone that would leave it with zero liberties. Illegal, unless the move captures an opponent group first and gains a liberty that way. See capture and suicide.
Tenuki: Playing away from the local area of the board instead of responding to the opponent's last move, usually because a bigger move exists elsewhere.
Territory: Empty points fully surrounded by one player's stones, counted toward that player's score at the end of the game. See how scoring works.
Tesuji: A clever, often non-obvious move that makes the most of a specific local situation: a sharp tactical shot rather than a routine move.