How to Teach Go to Beginners

Teach Go on a smaller 9-by-9-inch board, instead of the traditional 19-by-19-inch board. This will simplify things for beginners, and make the game seem less difficult.

Show Go learners that the stones must be placed on intersecting lines on the game board, which include the edges and corners. Explain what a liberty is, an adjacent cross section of lines to a stone. Depending on where the stone is placed a single stone may have two, three or four liberties. A stone cannot cross the open section of a box to reach a liberty, rather it must move across the lines.

Demonstrate to students how to capture a stone. Teach them that in Go, a player can capture another person's stone by placing stones one by one over their liberties. Go has many advanced techniques; however, only the basic trap and capture maneuvers should be taught to beginners. Students will play with either black or white stones, placing one at a time on the board while trying to capture all of their opponent's stones.

Allow two beginning students to play this version of Go, the capturing game, and teach them technique as they go. When the beginner's games begin to end always in a draw, they are prepared for intermediate Go.