Basic Stone Placement and Capture Go

What You’ll Learn 📚

• Core concepts of stone placement and capture in Go
• Key terminology and definitions
• Step-by-step examples from simple to complex
• Common questions and troubleshooting tips

Introduction to Go

Go is an ancient board game that originated in China over 2,500 years ago. It’s a game of strategy, where two players take turns placing stones on a grid. The objective is to capture more territory than your opponent. Sounds interesting, right? Let’s break it down further.

Core Concepts

Before we get into examples, let’s cover some key terminology:

• Stone: The pieces used by players, either black or white.
• Liberties: The empty points directly adjacent to a stone.
• Capture: Removing your opponent’s stones by occupying all their liberties.

Simple Example: Placing a Stone

# Simple representation of a Go board and stone placement
board = [['.' for _ in range(9)] for _ in range(9)]  # 9x9 board

# Function to place a stone
def place_stone(board, x, y, color):
    if board[x][y] == '.':
        board[x][y] = color
        return True
    return False

# Place a black stone at (4, 4)
place_stone(board, 4, 4, 'B')

# Display the board
for row in board:
    print(' '.join(row))

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. . . . B . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .

Progressively Complex Examples

Example 1: Capturing a Stone

# Function to check and capture stones
# Simplified for demonstration purposes
def capture_stone(board, x, y, color):
    opponent_color = 'B' if color == 'W' else 'W'
    # Check if the stone at (x, y) is surrounded
    if board[x][y] == opponent_color:
        # Check surrounding positions
        if (x > 0 and board[x-1][y] != '.') and (x < 8 and board[x+1][y] != '.') and \
           (y > 0 and board[x][y-1] != '.') and (y < 8 and board[x][y+1] != '.'):
            board[x][y] = '.'  # Capture the stone
            return True
    return False

# Place stones to set up a capture scenario
place_stone(board, 4, 3, 'W')
place_stone(board, 4, 5, 'W')
place_stone(board, 3, 4, 'W')
place_stone(board, 5, 4, 'W')

# Attempt to capture the black stone
capture_stone(board, 4, 4, 'W')

# Display the board
for row in board:
    print(' '.join(row))

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . W . . . .
. . . W . W . . .
. . . . W . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .

Common Questions and Troubleshooting

1. Why isn't my stone being placed?

   Ensure the position is empty before placing a stone. The place_stone function checks for this.

2. Why isn't the capture working?

   Check if all adjacent positions are occupied by the capturing color. The capture_stone function requires this condition.

3. Can I capture multiple stones at once?

   Yes, but you'll need to extend the capture logic to handle groups of stones.

Remember, practice makes perfect! Try setting up different scenarios and see how the capture logic works.

Ensure you don't overwrite existing stones when placing new ones!

Practice Exercises

• Try placing stones in different positions and see how the board changes.
• Set up a scenario where multiple stones can be captured at once.
• Modify the capture_stone function to handle larger groups of stones.

For more information, check out Go rules on Wikipedia and Sensei's Library.