Tsumego (Capture)
Life-and-death capturing problems: black to play and capture the marked white stones. Every answer is proven by exhaustive search. (Eye-shape life & death is on the roadmap.)
By number of moves
Latest problems
🚩 Tsumego: First Steps
New to capturing problems? Work through these 12 in order — six 1-move captures to learn the killing tesuji, then six 2-move captures. Solved ones get a ✓.
First Steps →⏱ Tsumego Speed Run
How many can you capture in 90 seconds? Find the killing move, fast. No hints — your best score is saved on this device.
🖨 Tsumego Worksheets (PDF)
Generate free printable tsumego (capture problems) as PDF — for go clubs, classrooms, or screen-free practice. Answers go on a separate page.
Print worksheets →📖 Related reading
- Go Capturing Problems: How to Train Your ReadingCapturing problems are the most direct way to build reading in Go — counting liberties, winning capturing races, and finding the killing move.
- Basic Capturing Techniques in Go: Ladder, Net, and SnapbackThe three techniques that show up most in capture problems — ladder (shicho), net (geta), and snapback (uttegaeshi): how each works and how to tell them apart.
How to play & strategy
What this drill asks
Black to play and capture the marked white stones. Every problem has a solution proven by exhaustive search, so you can trust that the capture really is forced.
Liberties and capture
A stone or connected group is captured when you fill its last liberty — the empty points directly next to it. Count the target group’s liberties, then find the move that wins the race to remove them before your own attacking stones run out of liberties.
The vital point
Usually only one first move works. Look for the move that takes away a liberty while keeping your own stones safe; in many shapes this is the “vital point,” the key square that both attacker and defender want.
Scope note
These are capturing problems. Full life-and-death — making or destroying two eyes, seki, and ko — is on the roadmap and not yet included, so every answer here is a clean capture.
What is a liberty?
An empty point directly adjacent to a stone or connected group. Fill the last liberty and the whole group is captured and removed.
Is there always exactly one answer?
The capture is proven by search. Sometimes more than one first move works; the drill accepts any move that forces the capture.