Go equipment
The equipment required to play the game of Go consists of the board, stones, and bowls for the stones. The quality and materials used in making Go equipment varies considerably, and the cost varies accordingly from economical to extremely expensive.
History
The oldest known surviving Go equipment is a board carved from rock that dates from the Han dynasty in China. Other examples of ancient equipment can be found in museums in Japan and Korea.Equipment
Board
The Go board, called the goban in Japanese, is the playing surface on which to place the stones. The standard board is marked with a 19×19 grid. Smaller boards include a 13×13 grid and a 9×9 grid used for shorter games that are often used to teach beginners. Some 19×19 boards have a 13×13 grid on the reverse side. 17×17 was used in historical times. Chinese boards are generally square; Japanese and Korean boards are slightly longer than wide, so that they appear square when viewed from a normal playing position. In Asian Go parlors, the tables are slightly lower than the typical game table so that the players can clearly see the positions of the stones.Traditional Japanese goban usually follow the dimensions:
| mm | inch | Japanese units | |
| Board width | 424.2 | 1.4 shaku | |
| Board length | 454.5 | 1.5 shaku | |
| Board thickness | 151.5 | 0.5 shaku | |
| Line spacing width-wise | 22 | 7.26 bu | |
| Line spacing length-wise | 23.7 | 7.82 bu | |
| Line thickness | 1 | 0.3 bu | |
| Star point marker diameter | 4 | 1.2 bu | |
| Stone diameter | 22.5 | 7.5 bu |
Go boards fall into several types or styles.
- Economical boards comprise paper, plastic, or laminate, which can easily be folded away and stored. They are often used by beginners or for when one does not have a proper set available. A board can be hand-drawn on a stiff piece of cardboard for the super-economical.
- Boards that comprise fabric, paper, or plastic may be rolled into a tube and easily carried along with stones to make a portable set. Some materials hold strongly onto the warp though and need to be weighted at the corners to make the board usable when unrolled.
- Magnetic sets are also available, which comprise metal boards and stones that include magnets. They are useful for traveling. Large magnetic boards are also available for demonstration purposes, during lectures and other presentations.
- Wooden boards, one to two inches thick, are commonly used. They are known as "table boards" because they are placed on tables The wood grain is pleasing to the eye, and the stones make a nice sound when placed firmly on the board. Portable boards can be made with hinges or slots. Some have grids on the reverse. Boards have been made from almost every type of wood, which includes particle board with or without veneer. Wood, such as spruce or katsura, that has a light color with a fine grain that does not compete with the grid lines is considered most suitable. The most valued boards are made from kaya, which is a mellow yellow. Also available are bamboo boards. The tensile strength of bamboo is comparable to that of steel making it very durable but also heavier than other wooden boards of the same size.
- A wooden floor board with legs is the most traditional, elegant, and expensive of all boards. Historically, to play on these boards, the Japanese would sit on tatami mats. The legs are carved to resemble gardenias. These boards are still used for important tournament games in Asia. Chinese versions of floor boards are not always made from blocks of wood, and more closely resemble a small table with an inlaid go board. The legs raise the board to the correct height. The board can range from 14 to 30 cm high. The thickest boards are the most elegant. The undersides often have a square recesses to prevent warping and to amplify the sounds of the stones hitting the surface. These are classified according to the quality of the wood grain. Itame refers to a bent or irregular grain; masame refers to consistent grain that runs straight across the top of the board. Masame boards are further classified as tenmasa, and most-prized tenchimasa Prices of kaya boards range from US$1,000 to $20,000 plus. Traditional boards made of other woods, such as Alaskan spruce, Agathis, or katsura are cheaper, starting at around $200.
Care of boards
Stones
Go stones, or go-ishi, are round objects placed on the board. They are colored either black or white and normally number 181 for black and 180 for white.There are two styles or shapes of stones:
- The Japanese and Korean style, which is lens shaped. This is the most popular style.
- The Chinese style stones are normally flat underneath and convex on top. This style is less common outside of China. Flat bottom stones can be useful for post-game analysis; by placing stones upside down, players can easily keep track of which stones were part of the original game. However, they are harder to pick up when clearing them from the board.
Stone dimensions
Stone thickness can also vary, from as low as 4 millimeters or as high as 12.8 millimeters, with most between 7.0 mm and 10.1 mm for biconvex and 5–7 mm for single convex. Thick slate and shell stones can last for generations, slowly becoming thinner from handling, and gradually acquiring an ivory-like patina. The diameter of the stones is standardized to around 22 mm ±1 mm, which can fit almost all Go boards. Black stones are slightly larger in diameter to compensate for optical illusion of the white stones appearing larger when placed with black stones of the same diameter. This mostly applies to Korean and Japanese stones – Chinese stones tend to be sometimes larger in diameter, but they do come in different standard sizes. A Chinese "large" size is about 23 mm in diameter while "medium" is about 22 mm. Chinese board dimensions are also accordingly larger to accommodate them. See also some comparative measurements of various go stone sets.For the most expensive clamshell and slate Go stones, stone thickness is carefully controlled and ranked according to size. Typical stone sizes are size 25 to size 37, and even thicker stones are available for a correspondingly much higher price. Commonly used shell and slate Go stone thicknesses are size 32 and size 33 for most individuals and size 36 for professionals. Stones thicker than 10.1 mm are difficult to place on the board, while many Go players prefer stones that are 8.8 and 9.2 mm thick, considering these the optimum thickness for aesthetic and practical reasons.
Plastic stones
Generally, these are the cheapest stones available. They range from flat, counter shaped to the typical lens shape. Price ranges from around $5–$30.One specific type of plastic stone is called the Ing stone, manufactured by the Ing Chang-ki Wei-chi Education Foundation. These are the official stones of the Ing Foundation and have some extra weight to them due to metal inserted in the middle of the stone. They are 10 mm thick and sometimes come in an Ing Bowl, which is specially designed to count them.
Stones can also be made from Melamine resin. This is a stable compound used in making countertops and other kitchenware and is considered safe.
Porcelain stones
Porcelain is the least common material for stones.Glass stones
Glass stones are the most widely used and most economical. They range from thinner flat-bottomed style, to a symmetrical lens shape. Glass stones have the correct weight and can be grasped with ease. White stones are polished and black ones are buffed to a matte finish, giving a feel somewhat like slate and clam stones. Price ranges from US$15 to $80 for glass stones with bowls. Glass 'gems' at an arts and crafts store are an inexpensive alternative.Slate and clamshell stones
These are usually the most expensive material. The black stones are made of slate, while the white stones are made from clamshells. Due to a single clam shell yielding only a limited number of stones, white stones are expensive to produce. The clamshells used to make the white stones used to be farmed from Japan, but since the supply is dwindling, most clamshells are harvested from Baja California in Mexico. These stones have three grades, depending on the stripe or grain pattern of the white stones. All grades use the same uniform black slate stones. Shell stones may also rarely be made out of the giant clam shell, as well as a clam shell that has a slight purple tint. Clamshell stones are cut as cylinders using a diamond coring drill, then professionally ground, sanded, shaped, and polished into the final product. Shell and slate stones are natural products that provide the ultimate in Go stone aesthetics, and even the lowest grade are far more expensive than the common plastic, glass, and ceramic stones. The price for a set of shell and slate stones ranges from US$200 to over $5,000 according to grade, with thicker stones costing progressively more, especially within the Yuki grade.- Jitsuyo 実用 are stones with a coarse grain across the stone, with 7 or 8 wide stripes. The stones are cut near the joint of the shell.
- Tsuki 月 are stones with a finer grain pattern, with more and thinner stripes covering about 70% of the stone. They are cut around the middle of the shell. These are considered the 'in-between' quality.
- Yuki 雪 are stones with a uniform, fine, straight grain across the stone, with many fine stripes covering at least 80% of the stone. They are cut from near the edge of the shell. These are considered the best by Japanese tastes, and are the most expensive, considering it is difficult to cut a stone with a great deal of thickness since the edge of the shell is mostly thin. The price ranges from $200 to over $35,000, the thicker stones costing more.