I have three go boards. Whenever I've seen a go board for sale, I have some inclination to use it.

But the fact is, there are two ways that I play go: online or at a go club - where there are already go boards.

As such, my go board usually collects dust. If I study, I either read go books or go software.

So when should I actually use any of my three go boards?

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be immersed

You should use one to analyze your games against MW so that you can beat him.

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I use it in order to follow pro-games from a kifu in a book or journal. The occasions, where I actually play on my own goban at home are very rare, though...

When I study I like to use my board, both to replay pro games as well as to look at interesting positions I find in books. Also, there are those rare occasions when my daughter has absolutely nothing better to do, and she challenges me to a game. You'll have to wait a bit for that though. Lastly, EdLee suggested using it when playing slow games online. So far this hasn't worked for me, but maybe it could work for you.

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Patience, grasshopper.

I use my go equipment at home quite a bit. Almost the only time I play is with friends at home. That activity is much more fun than playing on line or even in a club setting. I can use my high class equipment, we can both enjoy it, and, even though we take the game seriously, it becomes more of a shared experience than a fight. It must be said that I'm not a competitive player any more, I no longer play in tournaments, for example. I also find that using a board and stones to study works better than just reading a book or looking at a computer screen. I don't know why but I see moves better when there are real stones on a real board. Even if you never play at home, I do believe that using a board and stones to study pro games (or your own or other amateurs') games is helpful in tournaments or club games because you become accustomed to the slight irregularity in the arrangement of the stones. This is useful because sometimes it is hard to see whether stones are connected when they are a little sloppily played.

If your Go club players are not careless with the equipment they play on, then bring your goban and stones with you (assuming you have a nice 2-sun table goban to bring in the first place).

I have 8 complete sets, I think (I can only recall 5 off the top of my head at the moment)

A couple at work, and another couple at home that I use with any regularity. The rest at home do collect dust for the most part (heck, I can't even remember where I left them).

Nothing I have is very fancy. Some hand-made and others hand-me-downs, etc. And I've given away 2 or 3 (maybe that's where those others are)

My two main boards are 2.25" Japanese shinkaya, and I use both of them regularly.
One stays home, sitting on the floor, on top of another very worn and old (80+ years?) 4.25" board; with Kuroki stones.
The other one is for non-home use: every Wednesday evening 6 - 10 pm at Coffee Bean,
and all other events (like at a university club, Friday afternoon 3 - 5 pm); with 10mm ING stones.

I think this is a sort of unusual situation because you have such a nice local club, right? I have 3 sets (two crappy, one extremely crappy), one of which lives in the coffee shop permanently*, one of which lives in the trunk of my car, and the last of which occasionally sees use at home when I want to play out games or think over difficult tsumego.

* (Seriously, if someone stole it they'd be doing me a favor.)

I'm stronger on a real board for some reason, so whenever I can play on mine, I do. It's also good for playing out pro games; it's just not the same clicking through the games online.

Thanks for all of the responses so far. There are two quotes that I was hoping to get elaboration on:




These quotes seem to suggest that studying can be better using a real go board than using computers or books.

Gowan gives some elaboration already:


Are there any other reasons?

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be immersed

I haven't touched my boards more than twice in the last five years.

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- Brady
Want to see videos of low-dan mistakes and what to learn from them? Brady's Blunders

Maybe this was implicit in what Gowan said, but I like it because in an .sgf I have a tendency to click through/explore variations by making branches in the .sgf, but on the board I explore the variations mentally.

It takes some intention when you're putting stones on a real board. You have to see the move on the game record, find the spot on the board, and put the stone there. I don't know about you, but for me, that physical act makes me think about it at least a little, and it's more memorable.

Some theorists of learning say that we react differently to virtual things and real things we can touch. Our level of attention would be lower with virtual things such as what we see in pictures or screens.
I don't know why, but it certainly feels this way for me. I bought a board early because I found it too annoying to have to study on a computer.

I plan to carry my new 6cm Shin Kaya board to the Go club to show off... show others how beautiful the sound of putting stones on it is. But I need a bag for this beforehand and I have only found one suitable at Yellow Mountains but shipping cost makes it unaffordable. Need to think of something.

Other than that I use my board everyday to replay professional games and (irregulary) to study Joseki. I don't find clicking through a .sgf-file beneficial either. I think you can get a much better feeling for the game when you actively replay it. (And the sound of putting stones on my new Shin Kaya board is so beautiful :o)
Furthermore at one tournament I played a Daidaigeima monkey-jump because I was so used to see this semi-translucent stone at KGS before I make a move. And I can also sympathize with everyone trying to kill a group because he thought it was disconnected. Stone placement is not that accurate on a real board ^^

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

You don't say where you are. Here's a post on bags to carry your board (and one case) mostly available in the US.

Edit: The post above the one linked suggests a pizza bag. It seems like that might be available worldwide.

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Founder, Central Mississippi Go Club
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Go Kit Club Pack - pack of 13x13 go sets for clubs
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I like to use a board for playing pro games or for following along when watching badukTV (I'm imagine it would work for online lectures like KGS+ as well). The difference I see for how well I retain things is pretty dramatic. I would say it's basically the equivalent between taking notes in a class vs. not taking notes. Of course I am also the kind of person who is much more likely to remember something if I wrote it down (even if I never read the writing) than if I just hear it, so your mileage may vary.

I sometimes put positions from my OGS games out on my board and vaguely wonder where to play when I glance at it, but it doesn't get much use except when I have friends staying for a Go tournament and we stay up analysing our games late into the night.

Hey, thanks! I'm in Europe, so everything from the US is pretty costly. But a pizza bag is really a nice idea : ) I'll keep my eyes open.

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go