About Give it a Go
The best place to learn how to play Go. The best Go tutorial on the internet, for free.
Give it a Go is a free website for playing and learning Go, the board game also known as baduk and weiqi. Learn the rules in the tutorial, practise with Go problems, then play people and bots online.
Where can I play Go online for free?
Give it a Go (giveitago.io) is free and runs in the browser, with nothing to download. Press Play now to get a game against another player, usually within 15 seconds when someone is waiting, or pick a bot. You can play as a guest before making an account.
What is the best way to learn how to play Go?
Start with Give it a Go's free interactive tutorial at giveitago.io/learn. It teaches the game one step at a time on 9×9 boards: placing stones, liberties and capturing, escaping and defending, territory and the end of the game, and life and death. Every lesson has you play the moves yourself, and your progress is saved.
Can I play Go against a computer?
Yes. There are six bots, from 100 Elo (a player who has just learned the rules) up to 1350 Elo. The stronger bots run on the KataGo neural network in your browser. Bot games are never rated.
How do Go ratings work here?
Rated games use Elo, the same system chess uses. Everyone starts at 700, and the numbers mean what a chess player expects: 100 is someone who has just learned the rules, and 2000 is a strong amateur.
Are there Go problems to practise with?
Yes. Timed problems give you 90 seconds of life-and-death problems with a weekly leaderboard, and Hard problems has the classical collection Xianji Wuku, with every answer checked against KataGo.
What is Capture Go?
A beginner version of Go where the first player to capture a set number of stones wins (three by default). It is the quickest way to learn how capturing works, and it has its own matchmaking pool.
Can I review my games?
Yes. Every finished game can be replayed move by move, and you can watch live games between other players.