Go/Lesson 4: Life and Death

Life and Death refers to situations that one would get themselves into but have a bleak ending. Or do they? There is a reason that it is called "Life and Death" and not just "Death". Making good things out of life and death situations are key features in playing Go. This is a concept that allows you to protect your groups from being captured by your opponent, and likewise to capture their's. The ability to make eyes and the ability to escape to neighboring stones are all key concepts to learn when you study Go and in particularly life and death problems. Life and Death is one of the most important concepts in Go, and any serious player should not neglect it; losing a group can be dangerous as you may not have enough compensation to make up for your lost points. In order for a group to be live, it must be able to have at least 2 eyes.

Outside liberties

In order to kill your opponent's group, you must first surround all of the outside liberties of a group. This is to prevent that group from escaping and connecting with another one to guarentee it's live status.

Eyes

An Eye is an internal liberty of a group. While in some contexts, it specifically refers to a point where the opponent's stone can be placed inside, it can also more broadly refer to the internal liberties as well. A group can not live with 1 eye alone.

False-eyes

False eyes appear as an eye, but it can be easily captured. It it usually because the remaining liberty of that chain. In a Capturing race, these false eyes are functionally the same as a 'real' eye, but in Life and Death, these do not contribute to a group's life and death status.

Basic Eye shapes

Ko

For more info, check out the Resources page.