All are welcome! Ladders and tournaments use New Zealand rules. Ladders have handicaps enabled. Join any or all!

The New Zealand rules are simple to reason about and encourage experimentation.

• Area scoring (stones plus surrounded territory; beginners and experts alike can count with confidence)
• Stone removal by mutual agreement (play on if you’re not sure)
• 7 komi for even games; 0 komi for handicap games (draws are OK!)
• Free placement of handicap stones
• Self-capture is legal
• Situational Superko (cannot make a play that repeats the board position from one of your previous moves)

A few links:

• New Zealand Rules of Go at the New Zealand Go Society.
• New Zealand Rules at Sensei’s Library.
• Tromp-Taylor Rules, which are based on the New Zealand rules.
• Rules of Go at Wikipedia, which are based on the Tromp-Taylor rules.
• Rules comparison matrix here on OGS.
• How to play Go poster, courtesy of Wellington Go Club.

Members may also be interested in:

• For ladders using New Zealand rules without handicap, see New Zealand Tournaments.
• For more 9x9 tournaments, see 9x9 Lovers and 9x9 Leagues.
• For more 13x13 and 19x19 tournaments, see GO Special Tournaments.
• For more handicap tournaments and ladders, see Handicap Arena.

Tournament summary

All tournaments start when full. Starting dates/times are aspirational.

Legend for tournament naming

• D.E.: double-elimination tournament (one game at a time)
• League: round robin tournament (simultaneous games)
• Open: even games; all players welcome
• Handicap: handicap games; all players welcome
• 25k-10k: even games; restricted between ranks 25 kyu and 10 kyu
• 15k-1k: even games; restricted between ranks 15 kyu and 1 kyu
• 5k-9d+: even games; restricted to ranks 5 kyu and stronger

Ladder tournaments

Double-elimination tournaments

Double-elimination (D.E.) tournaments.

• Each player has one game at a time and is eliminated after their second loss.
• No rank restrictions. All players welcome!

League-style tournaments

Round robin (league-style) tournaments.

• Each player has a game against every other player, simultaneously.
  • Rank-restricted tournaments have 5 players (4 games each).
  • Open and handicap tournaments have 10 players (9 games each).
• Rank-restricted tournaments aim for slightly closer matches. If you’re not sure of your rank (or it shows as a ?), join the ladders, open, and handicap tournaments, and play ranked games elsewhere on OGS.

Open Tournaments

Active Tournaments

Finished Tournaments