Hi,

I am contemplating buying a new board and am divided between these Shin Kaya gobans -

http://shop.gogameguru.com/shin-kaya-go-board-05-c/


http://www.ymimports.com/p-2004-shin-ka ... OfKj6WBjp4



It is also a little confusing to me why the first one is more expensive even though the latter is a thicker board.

Any advice or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

I bought gogameguru's 2.4" shinkaya board which should arrive next week. It cost me ~$200 with free shipping. I suspect the quality will be similar, even though mine is several times the thickness.

I have no idea why you would buy a board half an inch thick. That seems silly to me. I would be dubious about its durability. You'd want a proper thick board, and at YMI you can buy one for a similar price as you saw. On the other hand, YMI's shipping costs may be painful depending on where you live. For me it was in excess of $200 just for shipping to Aus - yet GGG ships for free worldwide, justifying buying a more expensive product. If the shipping from YMI is decent I would definitely buy the thicker one, but if it's too pricey, go for the 2.4" from GGG.

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I was very very tempted to get a thicker board but was worried about portability (I move rather frequently owing to work) and moreover had some notions of hauling the board to the local club for a game once in a while.

The YMI, thicker boards (both floor and table) come out to be about the same with shipping...but then there is the issue of the garish yellow tinge

Yeah I hate the yellow colour too. There are a couple of pics of the colour in this thread - one is disgusting, but the other is quite alright.

If you want portability I'd be hesitant to buy a shin-kaya board that thin, because the wood is notorious for being quite soft. It's good for thicker boards, but without knowing more I wouldn't go for it. You could look into YMI's bamboo boards, which are allegedly quite durable and thin, but also heavy. If you are willing to stretch your budget a bit, Kiseido's 3cm agathis board is worth a look too.

If you move frequently, it is a biggish board to deal with,
but I've been hauling my 2.25" (56mm) shinkaya board to our weekly club meets for 10 years.
(shown in current avatar)... if you care about it enough, you'll carry it around.

Reading through the forums and based on your suggestions, I'm now seriously looking at one of these beauties -

http://www.kurokigoishi.co.jp/english/o ... index.html


Even with shipping it's still below ~ $300.

Yea, very beautiful. Amortize it over many years.
For mine, ~US$100/10 years/ even just once a week = US$0.20 per Go evening.
And the longer I keep using it, the lower the amortized cost.

I'm somewhat ambivalent towards Shin-Kaya (aka "New Kaya", aka Spruce).

My feeling is that if you are considering Shin-Kaya for its low cost, you might as well get an Agathis table board, pay even less, and have a more durable board (try to get a single piece board though, if you can). On the other hand, if you are looking to invest in a board that will last a lifetime and get nods of envious approval from every opponent you face, then go for a genuine Kaya board.

However, when it comes to floor boards (with legs), the Kaya products are typically out of reach of mere mortals. At least for anything thicker than 2-sun, and really, IMO there isn't much point in getting a floor board if it is going to be less than 4-sun. My next favorite wood for floor boards is Katsura.

I have a 2-sun Kaya table shogiban and a 4-sun Katsura floor shogiban. I'd love to get two equivalent goban, but my credit cards are still groaning in pain from the holidays. So until then I am content with my sturdy 2-sun, single-piece Agathis table goban.

The 0.5'' board is supposed to be a lighter and more portable alternative to the 2.4'' we sell.

Over time we'll try to add some more low end boards and adjust the range as we learn more about what people want, but to start with we had to make some decisions and not having a board that was easy to carry around seemed like a bad idea to us.

If the main purpose of a board is to take it to Go club each week, I'd personally opt for a folding MDF board (which you can find for about $20 in Korean grocery stores in many cities) and then choose the board I really wanted to use at home. I know other people have different tastes and standards, but portability is important too.

If you do get a folding board, have a look at the hinges on the bottom. If they protrude and your Go club is at a venue with nice tables, remember to have a cloth that you carry around with the board and put underneath it so you don't scratch the tables. If you drive to Go club you can just keep both of them in the boot of your car.

We'll try to get some folding boards and soft boards later this year. What we have available now at the low end is what we chose to try to satisfy the widest variety of intended uses, because you have to start somewhere.

_________________
David

Go Game Guru: Learn Go | How to Get Better at Go | Go Game Shop | Go Boards | Baduk TV

Thanks guys for your kind advice. I'm more informed now on the various choices, thanks to these forums !

I have gone with the the 0.5" shin-Kaya board from `Go Game Guru' for now (for the above mentioned reasons). It should arrive this week and if I feel I probably need a thicker/more-expensive one at that time, will try to get it returned. I believe they have a good return policy (??).

If portability was a concern, you could have gotten one of these:

http://www.ymimports.com/p-2071-gotote- ... Om263y9KSM

This would have allowed you to carry a nice 2-sun (6cm) board around rather easily, I should think.

Thanks.

The bag is nice, thanks. I'll keep this in mind when I get a thicker board. I also wish they will bring back something like this -

http://www.amazon.com/GoBox-Invincible- ... d_sxp_f_pt

Well, I just got my 2.4" shinkaya today, and it is stunning. But it is very heavy, so I think your choice for portability reasons was a good idea.

Photos?

Not sure if iPhone photos do it justice, but there you go.

Also I've never owned a full size board, so to me it looks massive.

Be thankful you didn't get a thick bamboo board if you are concerned with the board being too heavy.

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http://tchan001.wordpress.com
A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

That is such a lovely board. It appears to be from a single block of wood too. Congrats!

It's not a single piece, but it does look very much like it.

That's a beautiful board indeed ! Congratulations on an excellent purchase. The thickness looks great and the color is very pleasing as well, definitely not yellow