Simplified Ing Rules - Summary
Move: A move is either a play or a pass.
Suicide: A play may remove one's own stones.
No Repetition: A play may not recreate a previous position.
Stop: Alternate moving stops with two successive passes.
Agreement: After the first stop, the players may 1) agree about all regions
that shall be removed, remove them, and determine the scores or 2) disagree,
resume alternate moving, and determine the scores immediately after the
Score: A player's score is the number of all his empty or occupied intersections.
Result: The player with the greater score wins, unless the game is a tie
because the two scores are equal.
Simplified Ing Rules - EGF Rules Text
Two players play the game with stones and a board. One player uses black
stones, the other white. The board is a grid of lines and their intersections.
As a default, the game starts from the empty board that is a grid of 19
horizontal and 19 vertical lines forming 361 intersections.
Two intersections can be adjacent along a line.
Stones of the same colour are connected if they are adjacent or if there
is a chain of adjacent stones of their colour between them. Likewise, empty
intersections are connected if they are adjacent or if there is a chain
of adjacent empty intersections between them.
A region consists of an intersection and any intersections connected to
The position is the distribution of black, white, and no stones on all
the unique intersections of the grid. For a play, this is given after all
The score of each player is the number of all intersections a) with stones
of his colour, and b) of the empty regions that are adjacent only to intersections
with stones of his colour.
The players move alternately. Black moves first.
A move is either a play of one's own stone on an empty intersection, or
A play removes stones of every region without adjacent empty intersection.
Removing opposing regions takes precedence over removing own regions.
A play may not recreate a previous position from the game.
Alternate moving stops with two successive passes.
Then the players may make an agreement about all regions that shall be
If they agree, they remove those regions and determine the scores.
If they disagree until the result is fixed, alternate moving continues
as if there had been no removals due to agreements. Then immediately after
the next two successive passes, they determine the scores.
For the final position, either the scores are unequal and the winner is
the player with the greater score or the scores are equal and the game
is a tie. The players fix this as the result.
Simplified Ing Rules - Commentary
Purpose: The Simplified Ing Rules are used in those EGF tournaments that
are said to use Ing Rules. Since official Ing Rules have too difficult
and equivocal texts, the Simplified Ing Rules override those.
Wording: The wording is derived from the International Rules of the mailing
list "go-rules", simplifies some general definitions, is more precise,
and is adapted for the particular purpose of simplifying Ing rules in EGF
Differences: In rare situations involving ko or passes, the Simplified
Ing Rules differ from official Ing Rules. This is an intended feature so
that the rules can be applied not only by a few rules experts but by all
players and referees, whether or not they have read their text.
Vocabulary: The vocabulary fits common usage by European players, except
that it uses "region" for both strings of stones and connected empty intersections.
Default: For variants of the game, extra tournament rules can override
the default settings for the initial position or the grid size.
A region may consist of exactly one intersection.
There are three types of regions: a region consisting of black stones,
a region consisting of white stones, an empty region.
The intersections of the region are connected along lines. A region need
not have a straight appearance but it cannot be interrupted by any intersection
of some other type. A region is maximal: next to a black region there is
no further black intersection, next to a white region there is no further
white intersection, next to an empty region there is no further empty intersection.
When a play removes a region, then this can also be called a removal of
stones without any liberty.
During scoring an empty region does not provide any points if a) it is
adjacent to at least one black intersection and adjacent to at least one
white intersection or b) the whole board is empty.
The player having the turn has the right to choose between play and pass.
It is the player's right to make strategic mistakes even intentionally.
The rules prescribe what is legal - they do not distinguish between good
or bad strategy.
In order to pass, a player must press the clock. Thereby his opponent is
informed properly and he does not need to reveal any strategic hints when
trying to understand whether the player passes. If a player cannot say
"pass" due to language problems, he can still press the clock.
Successive passes are used only to stop alternate moving.
A clock specified in extra tournament rules runs only during alternate
Removal of one's own regions is called suicide and is legal. It can only
occur if a play does not remove any opposing regions.
General: The used variant of the no repetition rule is also called "Positional
Superko", is the simplest superko rule, and known to most players as "the
Practically relevant consequences: 1) A 2-play loop is impossible. 2) Suicide
of exactly one stone is impossible. 3) It depends on legal strategy whether
or how bent-4, double ko, triple ko, etc. are played; e.g., in a triple
ko a sequence of one play or a sequence of five successive plays often
have the same strategic effect.
Examples of rare strategic differences to official Ing Rules: 1) Successive
passes do not create an exception to superko. 2) Two so called disturbing
life patterns each with two 2-play kos on the board or 3) a triple ko with
one eye, two so called internal 2-play kos, and one so called external
2-play ko are treated by superko like any other shape.
Examples of scarce technical differences to official Ing Rules: Although
hardly a strategic issue, sequences of legal plays within scarce kos can
differ, e.g., in a triple ko five successive removals can be possible with
the Simplified Ing Rules but not with official Ing Rules.
Disagreement: If after the first succession of two passes the players disagree
about removals, then removals are restored and do not effect superko for
continued alternate moving since the rule about a continuation due to a
disagreement relies on the assumption that there would have been no removals
due to agreements. Before a continuation, all premature removals are undone.
It is the right of a player to choose whether regions that can be removed
are removed by actual plays before the first succession of passes, by means
of the players' agreement after the first succession of passes, or by continued
alternate moving until the second succession of passes.
It is the right of a player to agree or to disagree on removals. Extra
tournament rules cannot restrict that right.
After the first succession of passes, before the result is fixed, and before
any continued alternate moving, it is always the right of a player to request
continued alternate moving. The condition about the "fixed result" allows
to make and correct counting mistakes for determination of the scores;
however, once the result is fixed, it is not possible any longer to resume
In case of agreement, a game has exactly one succession of two passes.
In case of disagreement, a game has exactly two successions of two passes
and has an immediate determination of the scores after the second succession.
Continued alternate moving starts from the position at the moment between
the previous two successive passes and with the opponent of the last passing
player. During continued alternate moving, a move is either a play or a
pass, as usual. In particular, the entire continued alternate moving might
consist of exactly two moves that are both passes.
Extra tournament rules might set compensation points (komi) and shift the
In practice, a score can be determined by a mechanical counting procedure.
In tournaments with Ing sponsorship, fill-in counting is recommended. Then,
e.g., 4 white stones can represent a komi of 7.5 or 8.
Extra tournament rules may require that the result be fixed by letting
both players sign a result form or make verbal statements.
Extra tournament rules may specify resignation.