How To Play
Concepts
The Board
The board is a square grid, made up of horizontal and vertical lines.
Intersections
Every point on the board where the horizontal and vertical lines meet is called an intersection. Note that this includes the very edges of the grid.
Stones
The game is played by placing stones on empty intersections.
Groups
A group is any number of stones of the same colour connected horizontally or vertically.
Liberties
A liberty is an empty point adjacent to a group. Groups need these to live..
Territory
Any empty space surrounded exclusively by one colour of stone is territory for that colour.
Rules
Types of Move
Players take turns placing stones on empty intersections. Players move in the order they joined their teams in. Team 1 goes first.
Placing a Stone
By far and away the most common type of move! Place a stone on an empty intersection.
Resign
Don't think you have any chance of winning anymore? Time to resign!
You can only resign on your own turn.
If a player resigns from a team they are in and there are still other players remaining on their team, it is still their team's turn to move.
Pass
When there are no more moves to make and you would like to advance to scoring, it is time to pass.
Unlike resigning, a pass counts as your team's move.
Time Out
If a player does not submit a move on time, they time out and are out of the game.
A time out counts the same as a resignation - it is still the player's team's turn to move if anyone is left.
Capture Rule
If a group runs out of liberties, it is captured, and removed from the board.
If "Award Points for Captures" is enabled, the player who made the capture gets points equal to the number of stones that have been captured. If this setting is not enabled, points are not awarded for making the capture, but the captured stones are still removed from the board.
Suicide Rule
A player is not allowed to place a stone such that her own group would have no liberties...
unless this move captures an opposing group, resulting in the group of the placed stone having at least one liberty.
Superko
No board position can be repeated. A move which would lead to a repeat board position is illegal and cannot be played. This does not apply to moves where no stone is placed, such as passing.
Finishing the Game
The game ends when
- there are N passes in a row, where N is the number of remaining colours
or
- there is only one colour left. All the other players/teams have resigned.
If the game ends by passes, the colour with the most points wins. The amount of points a player/team is awarded is the number of stones of their colour on the board, plus their territory, plus the number of captures they made, plus or minus komi as applicable.
Please note: There is no stone removal phase - all stones on the board at the end of the game are considered alive. If there are stones in your territory, you must capture them manually, otherwise this territory will be neutral and not count towards your score.
Using DipGo
The Dashboard
The dashboard lists all of your active games sorted by how long you have left to move and is the easiest place to navigate the site from.
Starting a Game
You can start a new game or join an existing game by navigating to the play page.
Creating a new game
Create a new game on the Create New Game page.
Here you can set how many teams you would like the game to have, how many players per team, the size of the board and the time per move, as well as other rules.
Award Points for Captures whichever team makes the capture receives the amount of points equal to the number of stones they just captured.
Remove Stones of Inactive Teams removes the remaining stones of inactive teams. This is useful when playing large games with many players where the end game can often take a long time in situations where there are hundreds of dead stones on the board.
Joining a new game
You can join an existing game by selecting it from the list on the play page and clicking the "Join Game" button.
Note that you will not be able to join a game if it already contains the number of players required to launch!
If you wish, you may select a team to join. If you do not, you will be assigned to a random team when the game begins.
Starting the Game
Once a game has reached the required number of players for the game to begin, all players must confirm that they will play within the time allowed per move. The game begins when all players have confirmed.
If any players do not confirm, they are kicked from the game and the game resets to waiting for players.
Players play in rotation in the order they joined their teams in. Team 1 goes first.
The Game Page
The Board
If it is your turn, click an intersection and then the "Submit Move" button to make your move.
Beneath/beside the board, there are also buttons for if you wish to pass or resign, as well as the game clock, telling you how long the current player has left to move before timing out.
Private Chat
Private game chat. Conspire with your team and send messages to other players/teams to conspire with them too!
In team games, private chat is always shared between teammates.
The private chat box does not appear in two player games.
In game private chat is not accessible after the game has finished.
Chat
Public chat on the game. You can also comment on games you are not a player in.
Settings
Toggle email notifications when it is your turn to move, change colourblind settings and more in settings.
Look out for more features arriving very soon!