Play Gonu (고누), the Korean traditional board game, free in your browser. Slide your stones along the well board and trap your opponent so they cannot move. No download required.
Well gonu is played on a small board: a square with lines to a center point, but with the bottom edge left open as the "well" mouth. Each side has two stones, placed on opposite corners. On your turn you slide one stone along a line into a connected empty point. You cannot jump or capture; you simply maneuver. The goal is to maneuver your stones so that, on the opponent’s turn, neither of their stones has an empty point to move into. When a side cannot move, it loses, so every slide is about opening your own paths while closing theirs.
Trapping is the whole game. Stones at the low-connection nodes — the corners and the open-bottom points — are easy to pin, because they have only two lines leading out. Controlling the central point is powerful since it touches every corner, letting you threaten both enemy stones at once. The crucial discipline is to think one move ahead so you never block your own last escape: a careless slide can leave you trapped on your next turn. Patience and counting the opponent’s remaining moves win far more games than aggressive lunges.
Gonu is not one game but a whole Korean family of line-and-stone games. Beyond well gonu, there are capturing forms such as four-field gonu and gonjil gonu, played on larger grids where you remove the opponent’s pieces rather than merely block them. Boards were sized to the players and the moment, scratched bigger or smaller as needed. The shared idea across all of them is minimal equipment and pure positional thinking, which is why gonu spread so widely across the Korean peninsula.
Gonu is among Korea’s oldest folk pastimes, traditionally drawn in the dirt of a courtyard or scratched onto paper and played with pebbles, beans, or twigs. Farmers rested with it between chores and children learned foresight and planning from it, much as they did from yutnori and jegichagi. Because it needs nothing but a stick to draw lines and a few stones, gonu was a game anyone could start anywhere. This browser version preserves that spirit, pairing the simple well board with a thinking computer opponent.
Gonu (고누) is a family of Korean traditional board games played by drawing a simple board on the ground and moving stones. This version is "well gonu" (umul gonu): each side has two stones and you win by trapping your opponent so they cannot move.
Tap one of your stones to select it, then tap a connected empty point to slide it there along a line. You may only move to an adjacent empty point, one stone per turn.
You win when it is your opponent's turn but neither of their stones can move. If you cannot move on your turn, you lose, so blocking the opponent's paths is the key idea.
The open edge is the "well" (umul) mouth. It stops stones from circling forever and creates the dead ends you use to trap the opponent, which gives well gonu its tension.
Yes. Gonu is one of Korea’s oldest folk board games, traditionally scratched into dirt or drawn on paper and played with pebbles. Many regional variants exist; this version recreates the popular well-gonu form.