Here is the procedure of how to decide who plays with black stones or white stones. It is called Nigiri in Japanese. Nigiri means to grab or hold something in your hand.
- A player who is older than the other player grabs white stones from the container. You can grab as many stones as you want. It is usually around 10, but sometimes less than that or more than 20, depends on a person.
- The other player guesses whether the white stones are odd or even, using black stones. Place one black stone on a board if you think it is odd. Place two black stones if you think it is even.
- The player who grabbed whites stones is to place them down on a board, then count them to find out if it is odd or even.
- If the player who placed black stones guesses the number of white stones correctly, the player will start a game. If not, the other player who grabbed white stones will start.