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So - here you are, sitting in front of an empty board, a stone in your fingers, wondering what to do, where to to let it drop.... Should you play in the middle, or in the corner? What to do??
There are some simple pointers about how to start the game of Go and what areas of the are more important than the others. First of all, you have to understand that the best place to build a territory is the corner because the two edges of the board already provide two of the sides of your territory. The second in importance are the sides - for similar reason - because you already have one "wall" there! The last place to look for territory is the center - since there you have to put up all four walls to surround an area!
Another way of looking at this is efficiency! Lets look at Fig 1-1. In all 3 positions black has surrounded 9 points of territory. In Position 1, he did so in the corner, in Position 2 - on the side, and in Position 3 - in the center. Now please note that he had to use only 6 stones in Position 1, while he used 9 stones in Position 2 and 12 stones in Position 3 - which brings us to the issue of efficiency! It is more efficient to surround areas in the corners because you can do so with less moves!
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The most important areas of the board at the beginning of the games are the corners. This is where you want to place your first stones. The chances are - your opponent will do the same, so the first four moves will be in all four corners. From there, the game will spread towards the sides - since the sides are the areas which are second in importance. Then, and only then, the groups spread out into the center and fight for the remaining points.
And this is the crux of the CSM Principle - which stands for Corner-Side-Middle, and indicates the sequence in which the different areas of the board are occupied.
Ok, so we have established that the first priority in a Go game should be to occupy or take control of the corners! This is fine, but how can you do that? Which points to play at in the corners to "take control"? Which points are the standard opening moves in the corners?
Well - let us think about that! First of all - you do not want to play too close to the corner (like on the [1,1] point for example). The reason for that is that you need to have some space underneath your stone to use it as a base for surrounding an area! Also, if you play too low, your opponent may play "on top of you" and surround your stone and this is something to be avoided at any cost! Remember - Go is a game of surrounding, so your first priority should be to keep from getting surrounded by your opponent (and at the same time - try to surround him). Some more on surrounding and low corner moves here.
Ok - so you should not play too low! But you also should not play too high either - or you will give your opponent a chance to sneak underneath your stone and wrestle the corner area away from you! This cannot be good!
Not too low, not too high - what does that mean? It means that a certain balance needs to be struck and the moves you make have to be in the golden middle between low and high! Such moves are shown in Fig 2-1. All the points marked 'a' and 'b' are standard corner "openings". However, the points marked 'b' are not often used on a small (9x9) boards - and this is because of the small size of the board the whole dynamics of the game changes a little and so does the perception of what is "too high". On a 19x19 board, all of the 'a's and the 'b's are equally good although some of them are more popular than the others - and it seems to fluctuate with fashion, hehe... Each of the points has a special Japanese name - and it also has its strengths and weaknesses and a direction it acts towards - to learn more about it, go here.
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So - if you play on a 9x9 board, use the points marked 'a'. There are some special strategies which allow a player to start with the 'b' points on a 9x9 board (or even with the 'c' point) - so you will see players play these moves - but they usually require some more understanding of what you are doing! Or sometimes, they require a lack of understanding and you will see people who did not read these pages make such moves, hehe... Anyways - feel free to experiment and build your own opinions and preferences!
We were talking about the corner moves on 9x9 and on 19x19 boards - but what about the other standard board, the 13x13? Well - it is sort-of a transition stage between the 9x9 and the 19x19, and it has its own rules. Basically, all corner moves which are good on the 19x19 are also good on the 13x13, but some are more difficult then others. You can read more about the board sizes here.
So now you know what moves to start the game with!
If you want to know about corner enclosures (or how to add a second stone to better secure the corner), you may go here. If you are interested in how to extend along the side (which is the next step according to the CSM Principle) - go here. If you want to skip the sides and learn about the meaning of the center - go here.