☾ Morning Dew, daily
A fresh offline puzzle every morning, drawn from lessons and practice positions. About 40 seconds, one idea, one more plant in your garden.
Try it right here
Your first move is one tap away.
This is lesson one, live in your browser. White has a single liberty left — tap it and the stone comes off the board. No account, nothing to install.
White has one liberty left. In the app, you tap it — and the stone comes off the board.
Tap the empty point beside White.
- 3
- board sizes, 9×9 to 19×19
- 14
- free learning units
- Daily
- Morning Dew puzzle
- 60
- optional Plus positions
Learn
A few simple ideas. A lifetime of discovery.
Most apps for Go — the ancient board game also known as Baduk and Weiqi — hand you a rulebook. Go Garden hands you a board. The Path carries you from your first capture to finished games — 14 free units, each a small position with one clear idea to try.
- 01
Place a stone
Stones live on intersections, not squares. One tap and the board makes sense.
- 02
Count liberties
Every stone breathes through its empty neighbours. Corner, edge, center — feel the difference.
- 03
Capture & escape
Take White's last liberty — you did it above. Then learn atari, connection, and rescue.
- 04
Own territory
Surround empty land, finish with two passes, and count your area. That's a game of Go.
Play
Three boards. Zero waiting rooms.
Five tiers of opponents, from Seedling to Mountain, each with a style you can learn to beat. Seedling and Grove are free; Plus opens Forest, Willow, Cedar and Mountain. Local two-player on one device, either color, handicap stones — everything on-device, at your pace.
A full game in ten minutes
The 9×9 board is where tactics are born and evenings disappear. Perfect first battlefield — finish, review the turning point, plant the win.
Room to breathe, still an evening's game
13×13 opens the middle game: wider frameworks, longer fights, real territory to build — with confirm-move ghost stone and coordinates to keep you oriented.
The ancient game, unabridged
The full 19×19 board with atari indicator, undo, pass, resignation, bot dead-stone suggestions, resumable scoring, history with replay, and SGF sharing.
Finish & understand, not just finish.
Every game leaves you something to see. Reopen a finished match and Go Garden walks its key moments — deterministic observations about captures and turning points, never invented grandmaster commentary. Import any SGF to do the same.
Experiment freely
Undo cancels the bot's reply and restores your turn. Try the bold move; the garden won't judge.
Honest rules
Area scoring, 7.5 komi, positional superko, no self-capture — stated plainly. At the end, the bot suggests which stones are dead. Disagree? It asks you to play on and settle it on the board.
Garden
Progress you can see. Never punished.
Your persistent 9×9 garden grows a plant for every lesson, puzzle, and finished game. Original scenery shifts with the time of day — and after dark, the night garden glows.
- Seedling stepping stone
- Grove lantern
- Forest maple
- Cedar cedar gate
- Mountain tea house
Miss a day and nothing withers. No streaks, no decay, nothing taken away.
Go Garden Plus
When the Path ends, the practice begins.
60 authored practice positions in four chapters. Plus also opens the stronger Forest, Willow, Cedar and Mountain opponents, plus the Slate and Kaya board styles. One-time purchase, no subscription. Everything free stays free.
Chapter 1 · 15 positions
Capture and rescue
Read liberties, capture races, and legal exceptions.
Chapter 2 · 15 positions
Keep groups alive
Escape atari, make two eyes, and spot dead shapes.
Chapter 3 · 15 positions
Build territory
Close borders, take the biggest endgame move, and count.
Chapter 4 · 15 positions
Finish confidently
Take the final tactical value, then use the two-pass review.
Private by design
Your games stay yours.
No accounts, no ads, no analytics, no tracking — progress and saved games never leave your device. Read the full privacy policy: one page, plain language.
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Is Go Garden free?
Yes — lessons, all board sizes, friendly opponents, local play, undo, saves, and replay are free. The optional one-time Plus purchase adds four practice chapters.
Does it work offline?
Completely. Lessons, puzzles, opponents, and saves run on-device. Only App Store purchase processing may need a connection.
I've never played Go. Where do I start?
Right here — the puzzle above is lesson one. In the app, a three-step introduction takes you from placing stones to your first capture in minutes.
Can I play with a friend?
Yes — local two-player on one device, any board size, with handicap options.
Which devices are supported?
iPhone and iPad running iOS 17 or later — light and night-garden dark themes, Dynamic Type, VoiceOver labels, optional sound and haptics.
Is Go the same as Baduk, Weiqi, or Igo?
Yes — Go, Baduk (Korea), Weiqi (China), and Igo (Japan) are different names for the same ancient board game. Go Garden uses the English name Go throughout.
Where is my progress stored?
On your device only. No account, no cloud sync — deleting the app deletes its stored progress and games. See Support for help.