Go Mobile Overview

Go was brought to Japan by Buddhist priests, around 1,300 years ago. Studied by Japan's warrior class, Go techniques and strategies began to be passed down much like the techniques of sword-making and the samurai code.

Go has 180 white stones, and 181 black stones. The game board consists of 19 by 19 squares, with 361 intersections. The stones are placed on the intersections, not inside the squares.

When a piece is placed on the board it must be placed on an intersection, which may be inside the board, at an edge, or at a corner. There will be four, three or two lines touching the piece. A piece is captured when no lines are touching the piece.

When a piece touches another of the same color, they form a group. A group has more lines touching than a single piece can have. To capture a group, again no lines much touch the group.

Usage

A game of Go starts with an empty board. Each player has an effectively unlimited supply of stones, one taking the black stones, the other taking white. The basic object of the game is to use one's stones to form territories by surrounding vacant areas of the board. It is also possible to capture the opponent's stones by completely surrounding them.

The players take turns, placing one of their stones on a vacant point at each turn. Black plays first. Note that the stones are placed on the intersections of the lines rather than in the squares. Once played, stones are not moved. However they may be captured, in which case they are removed from the board, and kept by the capturing player as prisoners. At the end of the game the players count one point for each vacant point inside their own territory, and one point for every stone they have captured. The player with the larger total of territory and prisoners wins.

Visually, the game tries to help keep you up of the last move of the previous player, and the move in progress. The cursor is a large rectangle of the current themes color. The last move of the opponent is shown with a small rectangle, over the last stone placed.

Cursor on Top Black Stone, Last opponent move on White stone.

New Game

You can start a new game at any time. From the new game screen, select the color that you would like to be. The White player always goes first  If you do not want to clear the current game you are playing, select Cancel.

Tutorial

Go Tutorial

The Board

Go is played on a board with 19 horizontal and 19 vertical lines. The game can also be played on smaller 13 or 9 line boards. This manual uses 7 line boards to illustrate the concepts of Go.

7x7 Board

Placing Stones

Go is played by placing stones on empty intersections. Interceptions are created by each place a line intercepts another. Each intersection can have up to four sides, with border intersections having 3, and corner intersections having only 2.

Black Stones are always placed first, after any handicap stones have been placed on the board. White and Black alternate placing stones on the board, and can optionally pass. If the move is passed, the other player may place another stone on the board. Players stop placing stones on the board when all intersections have been captured (see Capture Territory), or have stones placed upon them.

Once a stone has been placed on the board, it is not moved unless it is captured, when it is removed from the board and counted as a point for the opposing player. (See Capturing Pieces)

A player can place a stone on any empty intersection, unless it is a Ko Move. (See Ko Move)

Stone Formations

Stones touching each other on a horizontal or vertical line create a formation. A formation increases the difficulty when capturing pieces. (See Capturing Pieces)

Captured Territory

Captured Territory are the empty spaces that are enclosed by stones of the same color. The edge of the board can be used as a border for the color. Each point inside the captured territory is worth a point. If the border is used to capture territory, the border intersections still count as a point.

Captured Territory Diagrams. (3 points each)

Capturing Pieces

When a stone, or formation of stones is completely surrounded by the opposing color the stones in the formation are captured and removed from the board. Each captured piece is counted towards the score of the player that captured the stones.

When the last black stone is placed, the white stone will be captured.

NOTE: When a piece is captured, the player generally will receive more than one point for the piece since the territory will also be captured.

Ko Move

When a capture of stones has been accomplished and the opposing player can recapture, from the same intersection, the move is considered a Ko move, and cannot be performed until the players turn has passed at least once.

Registration

To enable the full functionality of the application you will need to enter a valid registration code. When you have entered your registration code properly, you will be able to select Done. If the code you have entered is incorrect, you will not be able to select done. The registration code is based upon the Owner Name in the Owner Information for the device, you may obtain a registration code by visiting the Orneta website @ http://www.orneta.com or mobile site @ http://mobile.orneta.com