- Stones. Place a stone on any empty intersection. Black moves first.
- Liberties. A stone's liberty is each adjacent empty point. A group with zero liberties is captured and removed.
- Suicide. You cannot place a stone that would have no liberties (unless it captures an opponent group as a result).
- Ko. You may not immediately recreate the previous board position.
- Pass. Two consecutive passes end the game.
- Score (area). Your stones on the board + empty territory surrounded only by your color. White gets +6.5 komi.
- v1 note. Simplified: 9×9 board, no dead-stone removal, no rule-set selection. AI is random — Go AI is its own research field.