Promoting Go in the UK and beyond

The BGA Council's decision to adopt AGA rules was approved with no opposition by the AGM held at Hastings on 05/04/2008.

The AGA's official statement of the rules is the AGA complete rules and this is subject to the BGA interpretation. The combination of these two documents is the official statement of the BGA rule set - but, for convenience, a complete statement of the rules as interpreted will be found in the Referee's Document (PDF 430 kb).

Tournament Directors do, of course, as before, have the freedom to depart from the default recommendations (including using a different rule set if they wish) as long as these are specified in the pre-tournament publicity. However, Council hopes that most tournaments will be run under AGA rules, with deviations restricted to simple things like varying komi, so as to gain maximum experience.

Players can get a crib sheet showing guidance in playing by AGA rules from the Short Guide, and again in Short Guide (PDF 215 kb) for a better print.

BGA referees can find a printable version of the combined rules in the Referee's Document (PDF 430 kb).

The following pages are based on, or copies of, the official AGA Pages (they do not include any of the BGA's interpretations):

• an introduction
• rules with commentary
• rules explanation
• shorter rules