--
title: "How Go Handicap Stones Work, For Beginners"
description: "Go handicap stones exist for a practical reason: they let a 15-kyu and a 3-kyu sit down and finish a game that both of them still care about winning."
tags: ["handicap", "stones", "work", "beginners"]
canonical_url: https://yiboardgame.com/blog/handicap-stones-explained-beginner-guide
Go handicap stones exist for a practical reason: they let a 15-kyu and a 3-kyu sit down and finish a game that both of them still care about winning. If you have only played even games, a handicap reads as a consolation prize.
What a handicap is actually for. Without one, the weaker player usually loses before the game reaches anything interesting. The stronger player answers mildly, the position drifts, and by move sixty it is settled while neither person has learned much.
How handicap stones work, from rank difference to stone count. The rule of thumb is one stone per rank of difference. One rank apart and you play even, with black taking the first move and no komi, which is called taking black.
Where the stones go. Black does not place them wherever black likes. They go on the star points in a fixed order, and the order matters because it decides how the four corners connect.
What white gets back. In an even game white takes komi, usually 6.5 points, as payment for moving second. A handicap has already settled that debt with stones, so handicap games normally run with no komi, or with half a point as a tiebreak.
The part worth keeping: - Asking for fewer stones than the gap calls for, out of pride. Full write-up is on the source blog.
