Go · Strategy and opening plans
This guide covers the WANGO 19 × 19 area-scoring variant. Chinese, Japanese and AGA rules differ in repetition, komi and ending procedures; check the rules of other versions separately.
Go · 0
2–2 players · Untimed; duration varies by position
WANGO wango-go-area-v1; 19 × 19, White komi 7.5, positional superko
WANGO 19 × 19 Go rules and controls
Opening plans and decisions
This guide covers the WANGO 19 × 19 area-scoring variant. Chinese, Japanese and AGA rules differ in repetition, komi and ending procedures; check the rules of other versions separately.
This guide covers the WANGO 19 × 19 area-scoring variant. Chinese, Japanese and AGA rules differ in repetition, komi and ending procedures; check the rules of other versions separately.
Start here if you are new
Compare corners, sides and center
The board is open and no capture is urgent
Consider corners and sides before deciding how to connect or extend, while watching the opponent’s approach.
Board edges help form boundaries, so corners often need fewer stones to surround space.
Defending only one corner can give the opponent outside initiative
If a group is in atari, first assess escape or a counter-capture
Count liberties before chasing
Groups touch and a capture seems possible
Count shared and outside liberties before choosing to connect, escape or capture.
Focusing only on captured stones can hide danger to your own group.
Adding a defensive move may give up initiative elsewhere
If the opposing group has no liberties, check your liberties after the capture
Resume when the ending is disputed
Players disagree about whether a group is dead
Keep the original position and resume play to resolve the dispute with legal moves.
A scoring proposal is not an automatic life-and-death ruling.
More play adds moves and may change territory ownership
Once both sides agree on dead groups and the count, each confirms settlement
Details that are easy to miss
- Putting stones inside squares or treating diagonal stones as connected.
- Adding prisoners again when using area scoring.
- Treating dead-group markings as an automatic ruling.
- Confirming a changed dead-group proposal without reviewing it again.
WANGO wango-go-area-v1; 19×19 board, White receives 7.5 points of komi, positional superko; the player count and duration on this page are shown according to this site's trial-play mode.
A decision example
Teaching position: a white group has only one empty point orthogonally adjacent to it.; This empty point is the white group's last liberty.. Assume this move does not recreate an old board position, and Black plays on that empty point.; The entire white group has no liberties and is captured together.. Record this move's coordinates and the number of captured stones, then hand it to White.; White cannot immediately play a position that would recreate the old board position.
May White recapture immediately?
Capturing does not override superko. White must choose another legal point or pass.
How rules shape tradeoffs
Board edges help form boundaries, so corners often need fewer stones to surround space.
Site hypothetical analysis: removing this constraint would remove the original waiting or resource cost for the same opportunity. This is not an official variant.