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Counting & Winning

Players alternately play stones on any "neutral" points--intersections adjacent to both players' stones, also known as "dame" (pronounced DAH-MAY). Next, "dead" stones--ones that are not fully surrounded, but that would inevitably be captured if play continued--are removed from the board and added to the piles of prisoners. Finally, players add up their scores. A player earns one point for each vacant intersection surrounded by his or her stones--known as the player's "territory"--and one point for each prisoner he or she has captured. Whoever has more points wins.

In the position on the board below, the four points marked X are dame--worthless to either side.

After removing the dead White stone inside Black's upper right territory, Black has 7 points in the upper right, 2 points in the lower left, and 1 for the removed prisoner, for a total of 10. White has 5 points in the upper left, 2 in the lower right, and 2 for the captured Black stones, a total of 9. Black wins by 1 point (unless he or she is required to give White compensation, or komi, to offset the advantage of going first, as explained below).

If a player had to surround them completely, he or she would lose one point for each intersection that was filled in while surrounding them. In the previous example, Black would need to play two stones inside Black territory to remove the dead White stone in the upper right, changing the outcome of the game. Therefore, the rules allow players to simply remove dead stones after both players have passed and neutral points have been filled in.