Connect and Cut in Go: Why Touching Stones Matters
⏱ Read ~4 min · Updated July 2026 · Part of: Learn Go
Once you can count liberties, the next idea is the simplest tactical choice in Go: should my stones touch, or should I split the enemy's apart? That's connect and cut — and almost every local fight is some version of this decision.
| English | 中文 | Plain meaning |
|---|---|---|
| connect | 連（連接） | same-color stones touch → share liberties |
| cut | 切斷（斷） | split the enemy group in two |
| group | 一群子 | connected stones counted as one unit |
| diagonal | 對角（不相連） | corner-to-corner ≠ connected |
1. Connect: shared air, shared fate
When two or more of your stones touch orthogonally (up/down/left/right), they form a group and share their liberties — all empty points touching any of them count once, together.
🐬 Analogy: swimmers holding hands share the air around the whole group. To drown them, an attacker must cut off the entire group's air at once — much harder than drowning one lonely swimmer.
That's why connecting is usually defensive: two connected stones often have more combined liberties than two isolated stones, and they can only be captured as a unit.
2. The diagonal trap (beginners, read this)
⚠️ Diagonals do not count. Two of your stones touching only corner-to-corner are not connected — they're two separate groups, each with its own liberties, each capturable on its own.
This is the #1 connection mistake: assuming diagonal stones are joined. They aren't. Connection is strictly orthogonal.
3. Cut: splitting the enemy
A cut is a stone you place between two enemy groups so they can't connect. Now those groups are separate — each must survive on its own liberties, and you can attack the weaker one.
✂️ Analogy: a wedge driven into a gap in a log. The log splits into two pieces, and you can deal with each piece separately.
Cutting is how strong players turn a solid enemy wall into two vulnerable groups. The moment your opponent's stones are not connected, you have targets.
4. Connect vs cut — one decision, two sides
Every contact between your stones and the enemy is, at heart, this question:
| You want to… | Play… | Because… |
|---|---|---|
| keep your group alive | connect | shared liberties are safer |
| attack the enemy | cut | split groups are easier to capture |
| defend a weak point | connect | close the gap before they cut |
| exploit their gap | cut | separate them while you can |
5. On a 4×4 board
Small boards make connect/cut brutal and clear: there's nowhere to run, so a single cut can decide the whole fight. Most 4×4 capture puzzles are secretly about preventing a cut or forcing one — even when they look like simple capture problems.
Try it
Feel the difference between a connected wall and a cut one by playing a few puzzles.
👉 Play brainGO — connect or cut
Related guides
- Learn Go: the visual beginner's guide
- What is a "liberty" in Go? — what connection shares
- Capture in Go — what happens to cut groups