I'm curious to know if it's possible to play the game on a surface that has no gridlines? Say...a plain wooden surface, like say a cutting board for instance? I'm asking this because I'm noticing goban prices are very steep and I'm wondering if there are legitimate ways of getting around these high prices by using unconventional methods...like buying a relatively cheap surface board that you can purchase at well known retail chains for household items.

Why not draw the lines yourself? It would be much easier than trying to play on a board without lines

What is a high price for you? Is $12 too much?

https://www.yutopian.com/yutop/cat?prod ... category=T

Of course! When I was playing Go casually (before 2010), I used a Scrabble board with fish bowl stones. Worked just fine. I also once played on the sand at the beach using pebbles I found. I just drew out a board on the sand.

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Speaking of drawing the lines on a cutting board are there places where this kind of job can be done professionally?

I think any screen printer should be able to do it for you.

Here’s some help: http://www.gungfu.de/go/gobans/grid/

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You'll want to finish the wood before and after drawing lines on it so they don't rub off.

sure, but for the price you'll pay, you might as well buy a ready made set. You can get an inexpensive starter set

my first set was my pente board and more of those "fish bowl" stones.

then I bought some veneered plywood at Home Depot, cut it down to size and drew the lines on with a ball point pen (still my favorite board)

I knew it had been discussed before, and was a bout to post saying so.

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a1h1 [1d]: You just need to curse the gods and defend.
Good Go = Shape.
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Ladders are going to be interesting.

Part of playing a ladder will be not only placing your stone, but trying to adjust the ladder just a little bit to avoid - or hit - possible ladder breakers. On a long ladder, a player could curve it back on itself if his opponent is not careful.

So bumping the opponent's stones will be part of the game. In this respect, go will start to resemble croquet.

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