How to stop playing Go
- How to stop playing Go
- How do we know when it’s over?
- A desperate invasion
- A tragic mistake
- Bad faith opponent
- Shortcuts — by agreement only
How do we know when it’s over?
A common dilemma for new Go players is figuring out when the game ends. Unlike chess, which ends when the King is captured, Go ends when the players agree it’s over.
And how do you agree to end? By passing. If both players pass in succession, the game ends and the score is counted.
For experienced players this is usually obvious — they can quickly tell when no meaningful moves remain. But for beginners, it’s often much harder. Let’s revisit the first diagram from the how-to-play page.
Out of the 81 intersections:
- Black
- 30 points of territory (shown with △)
- 14 stones
- 44 points total
- White
- 24 points of territory (shown with ○)
- 13 stones
- 7.5 point for komi
- 44.5 points total
A desperate invasion
In our example game, both players passed on the final two moves. But imagine Black suddenly realizes they’re losing (maybe they just remembered that pesky komi rule). Instead of accepting defeat, Black decides to invade White’s territory.
There’s no rule stopping such a move. In fact, White’s wall has a small weakness. Go is war! Territory isn’t yours unless you can defend it against any invasion.
Black cuts, attacking the weakness in White’s wall. But White captures the invasion and defends their territory. Afterwards:
- Black:
- 30 points of territory (shown with △)
- 14 stones
- 44 points total
- White:
- 19 points of territory (shown with ○)
- 18 stones
- 7.5 point for komi
- 44.5 points total
In the end, nothing changed, so Black could have simply accepted defeat instead of trying this invasion.
A tragic mistake
But what if White misplays the defense? In this case, the invasion succeeds spectacularly and now:
- Black:
- 37 points of territory (shown with △)
- 22 stones
- 59 points total
- White:
- 12 points of territory (shown with ○)
- 12 stones
- 7.5 point for komi
- 21.5 points total
Black wins by a landslide — 37.5 points.
Bad faith opponent
What if White defends correctly but Black refuses to give up, dragging the game on with pointless moves? If one player never agrees the game is over, what happens then?
A practical note
The following example is extreme, but for beginners it can genuinely be hard to tell the difference between a real invasion attempt and a pointless one. If you are playing in good faith, there’s nothing wrong with “playing it out” to learn.
But especially online against an unknown opponent, you might run into:
- Beginners who simply don’t know they are supposed to pass.
- Opponents not acting in good faith — stalling in hopes you’ll give up.
If you are playing on OGS, use the Call moderator button (wiki link for the same) if things get out of hand.
The details of how it finally ends
This is gonna be pretty long — feel free to skip if you’re playing with friends who won’t push things this far.
Eventually, the stubborn player runs out of legal moves. If you’re patient enough to sit through it, the final score ends up as:
- Black:
- 1 point of territory
- 44 stones
- 45 points total
- White:
- 8 points of territory
- 29 stones
- 7.5 point for komi
- 44.5 points total
And after all that, nothing changed — White still wins by 0.5 points.
Shortcuts — by agreement only
Or: How to stop playing Go even faster.
Let’s shift focus from prolonging the game to ending it quickly, so you can get to the next round!
Recall the definition of Territory — Empty intersections sealed off by your stones. (Picture a flood fill: if the color can only reach your stones, the area is yours.)
Important: Even if an area seems clearly under your control, just one opponent stone in there means it’s not yet your territory.
Instead of playing out the capturing moves, the players may both pass and agree that certain stones are dead. If they agree, those stones are removed and the score is counted.
Experienced players understand the stones marked ○ are hopelessly dead. Without an agreement phase, both Black and White would need to play three more moves (1, 2, 3, and A, B, C) just to prove the obvious. On a 9x9 board it’s only a couple moves, but on larger boards it could mean dozens.
So it’s common practice to just pass here, agree those stones are dead, and remove them from the board.
Final score in this case:
- Black:
- 25 points of territory
- 21 stones
- 46 points total
- White:
- 17 points of territory
- 20 stones
- 7.5 point for komi
- 44.5 points total
Under the AGA rules, if the players can’t agree on whether certain groups are alive or dead, play continues, with the opponent of the last player to pass moving next. If they never agree and both pass twice in a row, then every stone left on the board is treated as alive.
On OGS, this agreement phase is mostly automated. After both players pass, the server marks groups it thinks are dead. Players review the marked stones and adjust them if needed. Once everything looks correct, click the “Accept removed stones” to finish the game, or Cancel to keep playing if something’s wrong.
In an online setting, the agreement phase is another spot where you might run into players not acting in good faith. If your OGS opponent is abusing the agreement phase, for example marking clearly alive stones as dead, use the Call moderator button (wiki link for the same).