The objective of Go is to obtain more territory than your opponent. It does not really matter what is the difference – so long your territory is more than your opponent’s, you win the game.
Diagram 1-13
When we count territory, we count the number of points surrounded by the stones. In Diagram 1-13, black owns a territory of 9 points; white too claims 9 points as his territory.
Diagram 1-14
When calculating who wins the game, due to the fact that stones can be captured or removed from the board, we take into account the number of stones as well. Therefore we find the sum of territories and number of stones for a player, and see if it is more than the opponent’s sum.
Consider Diagram 1-14, a game played on the 13x13 board. Black and white has 39 stones each. Black has surrounded 45 empty points while white has 46. Adding them together, black has 84 points and white has 85 points. Hence white wins this game.
