Simple Rules

The game is played on a grid of 19x19 points. The color of a point is black, white, or empty. One player uses black, another white. The start is on the empty grid by black. A black / white point is surrounded if no leaving path reaches empty first after black / white; an empty point is surrounded by black / white if any leaving path reaches black / white first after empty. A move of a player colors an empty point his color, then empties all surrounded points of the opponent's color, then empties all surrounded points of the own color. A pass does not color. The end is two successive passes.

  1. The players alternate using either a move or a pass.
  2. After any move one may not repeat all points' colors.
  3. At the end the player with the higher number of his points plus empty points surrounded by his color wins.

[1] [2]
[3]
[4]
[5]

[1] circled black surrounded by white, triangled / squared empty surrounded by black / white
[2] alternation; 17, 19, 20 = pass; 20 ends game and any color change
[3] moves 1 and 2 include emptying of surrounded black points
[4] move 2 is prohibited due to repeated grid point colors as before move 1
[5] black wins by 1 point on each end grid; black / white points are triangled / squared