A complex strategical game, the object of go is not so much the destruction of the opposing player but peaceful coexistence on advantageous terms. If the Go board is a huge market to be divided up between the two players, then the stones are chunks of investment, aimed at capturing a greater and greater market share. Stones are played alternately on any free intersection.
Stones never change position, but they can be captured.
Stones of one color that are connected live or die as a group. A group may consist of just one stone. The captive stones are held for use in the scoring at the end. A stone may not be played where a prior configuration of the whole board would be reproduced. A stone may not be played where it, or the group of which it would be part, would be dead according to rule 4., except if an enemy group is killed by such placement.