Your Go group is in atari: count, connect or capture?

Find the whole connected group first

A liberty is an empty intersection immediately above, below, left or right of a stone. Stones of one colour connected through these directions form a group and share liberties. Diagonal contact alone does not connect them.

Follow the entire group before counting its empty neighbours. Here letters run left to right and numbers top to bottom, without changing for the player’s colour. The small examples isolate local calculations. A real game may also involve distant support, ladders, ko and other variations. First learn to calculate one move accurately rather than infer the whole result from a local shape.

Count distinct empty points, not edges

On an otherwise empty 5×5 board, black stones at B2 and C2 form one group. Its liberties are A2, B1, B3, C1, C3 and D2: six in total. Adding two isolated-stone counts would wrongly give eight, because the stones occupy one another’s neighbouring points.

After adding a black stone at B3, list the empty neighbours again. In a bent group, several stones may touch the same empty point; it still counts once. Write distinct coordinates before counting. A shortcut such as “extending always adds three liberties” fails near edges, enemy stones or your own groups.

Atari does not prescribe just one reply

Around the B2–C2 black group, place White on A2, B1, B3, C1 and C3. D2 is its only liberty. The group is in atari. If White gets to occupy D2 without another change, the group is captured.

Black can consider extending to D2, connecting to another friendly group or capturing adjacent enemy stones. Sometimes one move does more than one job. Sometimes saving a small group endangers a larger one. List the alternatives before automatically running outward. “In atari” describes the present liberty count, not a unique best response.

Compare the group before and after extending

If D1, D3 and E2 are empty, Black’s extension to D2 consumes the old liberty but creates three new ones. The group escapes immediate atari. Three liberties do not establish unconditional life or territory; White may keep attacking.

Now put white stones on D1 and D3 while leaving E2 empty. Extending to D2 can leave the group with only E2 as a liberty. It has grown without removing the urgent threat. Count the old liberty consumed, new liberties gained and any captures. Group size is not a measure of safety.

Capture first, then check your own liberties

Consider a 5×5 board with Black at A2, B1 and C2, and White at B2, A3, C3 and B4. White’s B2 stone has only B3 as a liberty. B3 appears surrounded, but Black can play there: the move removes White’s B2 stone and gains B2 as a liberty.

Resolve the move in order: place the stone, remove adjacent enemy groups with no liberties, then check the resulting friendly group. Being surrounded before captures are removed does not by itself make a move suicide. If no capture creates a liberty and the friendly group remains without liberties, the site’s practice rules reject it.

A connection can also create a problem

Connecting two groups does not simply add their liberty counts. The connecting point is consumed, and shared liberties must be counted once. A cramped small group may contribute little freedom while tying a larger group to its trouble.

List each group’s liberties, then calculate the merged set after playing. Compare connecting with extending into open space. Beginners need not solve every strategic sacrifice, but they can avoid assuming that a visually larger connected shape is automatically safer. If both moves escape atari, examine the opponent’s next reply before choosing.

Two empty points are not necessarily two eyes

Two adjacent internal empty points may form one two-point eye space rather than two independent eyes. Two secure, separate true eyes protect a connected group because the opponent cannot fill both in a single move or survive the first invasion by capturing that group.

Do not count visual holes alone. If part of the surrounding shape can be captured, an apparent eye may be false. Seki is another reason that lacking two ordinary eyes does not automatically mean death. Liberty counting begins a life-and-death analysis; it does not replace it. The site’s scoring review uses agreed dead-group markings, not an automatic life-and-death verdict.

Predict, play and review

Before using a hint, choose a group, list its stones and list its distinct liberties. Predict which liberties a move consumes, creates or opens through capture. Play it and compare. A discrepancy usually means a missed connection, an overlooked capture or a double-counted point.

Then try a short life-and-death study. Pause before each reference move and predict the opponent’s immediate threat if you play elsewhere. Test an alternative on the free board. A reference line does not prove every branch. Classify mistakes as counting, connection, capture order or eye-shape errors, and practise the category that recurs.

Continue learning

• Go for beginners: liberties, atari and capturing stones
• A stone breathes through its liberties