10 Beginner Mistakes in Go (And What to Do Instead)

Most beginner Go mistakes are not bad moves so much as bad reflexes: answering everything, saving everything, invading everywhere. They are easy to spot once somebody names them, and each one has a replacement habit you can start using in your next game. Here are the ten that cost the most points, in roughly the order a new player runs into them.

1. Playing on the first and second line early

The edge lines look safe, and a stone there is nearly impossible to capture. It also surrounds almost nothing, because two of the four directions are off the board.

A black stone played on the very edge of a 9x9 board, with the four star points marked to show where an opening move actually does work.
The edge stone claims a point or two. The marked points claim a corner.

Do this instead: open on the third or fourth line, near the corners. The first line is for the endgame, and by then it is worth playing.

2. Trying to save every stone

Chasing a doomed stone turns one lost stone into four, and every move you spend running builds a wall for your opponent.

Two marked black stones running from capture with one liberty left, surrounded on every other side by white stones that have grown into a solid wall.
One stone became two, still with one liberty, and White now has a wall.

Do this instead: before rescuing a stone, ask what it is worth. Two stones are worth about four points. If saving them costs three moves and hands your opponent a wall, let them go and play the big point elsewhere.

3. The empty triangle

Three stones in an L with the fourth point of the square left empty. Three stones, seven liberties, where a straight line of three has eight and covers more board.

Three black stones forming an empty triangle, with the empty fourth point of the square marked. The shape has one fewer liberty than a straight three.
The empty triangle. One wasted stone, one fewer liberty.

Do this instead: when you catch yourself about to make one, look for a one-point jump or a tiger’s mouth that does the same job. Good shape covers the alternatives.

4. Attaching to a strong stone

Touching an opponent’s stone starts a contact fight, and contact fights make both sides stronger. Against a wall that is already strong, that is a bad trade: they gain nothing they need, you gain a heavy stone in a bad place.

A black stone played directly against a solid three-stone white wall, marked as a mistake because contact only makes the already-strong wall stronger.
Attaching to a wall. White answers, gets stronger, and Black gains nothing.

Do this instead: play one or two points away from strong stones. Attach to weak lone stones when you need to settle quickly, not to walls.

5. Following the opponent around the board

If you answer every move your opponent makes, they choose where the game happens for the next sixty moves and you never once get to play your own plan.

Do this instead: after every opponent move, ask one question. If I ignore this, what do they get? If the answer is “nothing much,” play somewhere bigger. Losing the habit of automatic replies is the fastest single improvement available to most beginners, and it is the idea behind sente in strategy for beginners.

There is a version of this that catches stronger beginners too. Your opponent plays a move that threatens something small, you defend it correctly, and you have still lost the exchange, because defending correctly against a small threat is a small move. Correct and small is not good enough when there is a big point sitting untouched.

6. Ignoring atari on a big group

Atari means one liberty left. New players spot it on a single stone and miss it entirely on a group of six, because they are counting stones instead of liberties.

A four-stone black group surrounded by white with one liberty remaining at the marked point, so a single white move would capture all four stones.
Four stones, one liberty. The marked point is the whole group.

Do this instead: count liberties for groups, not stones, and get into the habit of scanning your weakest group’s liberty count every few moves. Liberties and capture is the drill for this.

7. Invading everywhere

An invasion that lives is worth a lot. An invasion that dies is worth less than nothing, because your opponent gets paid in solid territory for every move they spend killing it.

Do this instead: before you invade, ask whether that stone can reach two eyes or run out to safety. If you cannot see how, reduce from the outside instead. Losing three points by playing safe beats losing fifteen by playing brave.

8. Leaving cutting points

Loose shapes cover more ground, which is exactly why they have gaps. Leaving a gap is fine right up until the moment your opponent can push through and split you into two weak groups.

Two black stones connected only diagonally, with a white stone pushing between them and the marked point where White can cut them apart.
White pushes through. The marked point cuts Black into two groups.

Do this instead: when your opponent plays next to a gap in your shape, treat it as a warning. Either connect, or make sure both halves can live on their own.

9. Not making eyes until it is too late

Eye shape is cheap when you have room and impossible once you are surrounded. Beginners wait until a group is already enclosed before thinking about eyes, and by then there is nothing to make them out of.

A black group surrounding a three-point eye space in a row, with the middle point marked. Black to play there lives with two eyes; White to play there kills the group.
Whoever takes the marked point wins. Black lives with two eyes, or White kills.

Do this instead: notice when a group has only one eye or none, before your opponent starts pressing. A group needs roughly six points of reasonable space to be confident of two eyes. Life and death is the guide for this, and it is the topic that repays study the most.

10. Passing before the board is finished

Under the area scoring this site uses, your score is your stones plus the empty points you surround, so every neutral point you fill is worth a point to you.

Two settled walls with a column of marked neutral points between them, each worth one point to whichever player fills it under area scoring.
Seven neutral points, seven points on the table. Passing here gives them all away.

Do this instead: keep playing until no move gains anything, then pass. Filling your own territory does not cost you points under area scoring, but it wastes a turn and can ruin your own eye shape, so take the neutral points first. How scoring works has the details, and the endgame guide covers the order to play them in.

The one habit that fixes most of them

Before each move, look at two things: your weakest group, and your opponent’s weakest group.

That single check catches most of the list. It stops you saving doomed stones, because you notice which of your groups actually matters. It stops you invading blindly, because you can see whether the new stone has anywhere to run. It stops you ignoring atari, because you were already looking at the group in danger. And it turns attacking from a guessing game into a reasonable question: is their weak group weaker than my weak group? If yes, attack. If no, defend first.

None of this sinks in from reading. Play a handful of quick games on the 9x9 board, and after each one find the single move where the game changed. It is usually one of these ten. How to get better at Go sets out the practice routine around that, and 9x9 strategy covers what to do on the small board while you are learning.

Frequently asked questions

What is the biggest mistake beginners make in Go?

Answering every move the opponent plays. It feels responsible, but it hands your opponent control of where the game happens and means you never get to carry out a plan of your own. The fix is to ask, after each of their moves, what would actually happen if you ignored it. Often the answer is not much, and there is a bigger move waiting somewhere else.

How do I stop losing groups?

Count liberties for whole groups rather than single stones, and make eye shape early while your group still has room. A group with two eyes can never be captured, and one with six points of space in a reasonable shape can usually get there. The habit to build is checking your weakest group before every move, so you notice trouble while it is still cheap to fix.

Try it on the board →