Life In 19x19

Hi Bonobo,

Thanks. Yes, the Nihonkiin board does look nice in the photo.

jeromie wrote:Kurokigoishi has a no-hinge folding go board that may fit your budget even with international shipping: http://shop.kurokigoishi.co.jp/en/item/166.

I'm just going to chime in here to say that I've bough the above-mentioned product and am very pleased with the purchase.

I just happened to have seen a used Japanese slotted goban with glass stones on the US eBay for $60 (+ ~$15 s/h): http://www.ebay.com/itm/Japanese-GO-Gam ... SwAYtWJQ56. Although the seller does not know what kind of wood it is, to my under-educated eye it appears to be Katsura (due to the appearance of transparent wash typical of lower-quality Katsura boards). It is a good thickness (30mm, or about 1-3/8 inches) and the seller reports it is in fairly good shape. The stones appear to be typical glass biconvex, ~8mm in height, and despite what the seller said in the listing title the bowls appear to be plastic.

Although I do not have a slotted board, I have often played on them, and find the experience to be not much different than playing on a "whole" table board (the same cannot be said of folding boards, of which I have a few). I will just echo what others have said that this is the preferred form for a portable go board, as slotted boards are typically thicker than folding boards, and by their nature lay much flatter.

Slotted Japanese go boards are not a frequent find on eBay, so I would normally just buy this set so as to have a higher quality portable option, but given the absurd number of boards I already "had to have" I would risk familial ridicule and rebuke if I "invested" in yet more go equipment (*sigh*).

Oh, I should also mention that this listing ends on Thursday, November 5th, at 12:23 EST; if you miss it (and it remains unsold) it will probably be listed again (the seller has done that before, as I recall from my eBay searches).

Good luck on finding the board of your dreams!

Schwartzseer

schwartzseer wrote:used Japanese slotted goban with glass stones on the US eBay for $60 (+ ~$15 s/h)

Yikes -- shipping to the west coast is over $50!

Although the seller does not know what kind of wood it is, to my under-educated eye it appears to be Katsura

The wood is Agathis. This is the same type board I got from the Nihon Kiin.

It's too bad the shipping costs were so high or I might have picked another up. These are really nice boards for the price, great for clubs or casual play.

Somebody snapped up the set yesterday, so if it was a member of this website, congrats!

I was frankly surprised at the cost of shipping cited above (since when I put in my East Coast zip it calculated the cost to be less than $15) but sure enough, an Los Angeles zip yields a shipping cost of over $50! This is frankly bizarre given that it would be USPS priority shipping, and in my experience there is not a huge difference in USPS pricing for the lower 48 states. Sorry that you "left coasters" were discriminated against in this way!

Anyway, regarding Erythen's assertion that the wood was most likely Agathis--I thought the wood (and the translucent wash it sported) looked very similar to a folding Japanese 15mm Katsura wood board I own, and knowing that Japanese boards are much more likely to be Katsura than Agathis (as Agathis is favored much more by the Koreans) I assumed it would most likely be Katsura wood. Well if someone here *did* win the auction, it might be interesting to see if the label indicates the wood type

gowan wrote:I don't know whether you have ever, for some reason had to move a game in progress. That's happened to me at home or at the club. If you have a folding board it adds one more risk of ruining the position. If you have a slotted board like the one linked in Erythen's post there is no danger of the board folding when you don't want it to.

Yes, you can move a slotted board (and possibly a magnetic hinge board) without bothering to pay attention to how you pick it up. Moving a hinged board safely requires that you pay attention and pick it up with hands at opposite ends of the fold line. AFAIK, nobody is making a "locking" hinged board.

Mike Novack wrote:Yes, you can move a slotted board (and possibly a magnetic hinge board) without bothering to pay attention to how you pick it up. [..]

In my experience “without bothering to pay attention” is not true for magnetic hinge boards. It is possible to move such a board with a game on it (I’ve done it successfully), but it is quite difficult (I have also failed a few times).

Bonobo wrote:

Mike Novack wrote:Yes, you can move a slotted board (and possibly a magnetic hinge board) without bothering to pay attention to how you pick it up. [..]

In my experience “without bothering to pay attention” is not true for magnetic hinge boards. It is possible to move such a board with a game on it (I’ve done it successfully), but it is quite difficult (I have also failed a few times).

That's why I said "possibly". Not having encountered one of these, no idea if they used magnets strong enough for that. If the magnets just strong enough to keep the board together when supported on a surface, no, would be as difficult and possibly even more difficult to move as a hinged board (as the hinged board is rigid in one direction). Note that magnetic boards with magnets strong enough to easily move the board might make it difficult to take the board apart.

Mike Novack wrote:

Bonobo wrote:In my experience “without bothering to pay attention” is not true for magnetic hinge boards. [..].

That's why I said "possibly". [..]

Yes, I’m aware of that, that’s why I wanted to add my “experience” with such a board Then again, maybe it’s just that my hands are not as calm anymore as they once were …

Cordially, Tom

We also need to understand that we are discussing "as things are given the actual products available". The actual strength of magnets used in magnetic boards, the type of hinges used in hinged boards, etc. We are not speaking about the theoretical (hinged boards just as easy to move as slotted if those were locking hinges --- simple design there were enough go boards to just if making them -- but would have to turn the board over to unlock before folding it).

Several years ago I was in the same boat as the OP with an identical budget. $200 buys a lot. You might consider tracking down a (semi) local woodworker and having a custom board made. It's more footwork, but the result is worth it.

schwartzseer wrote:I just happened to have seen a used Japanese slotted goban with glass stones on the US eBay for $60 (+ ~$15 s/h): http://www.ebay.com/itm/Japanese-GO-Gam ... SwAYtWJQ56. Although the seller does not know what kind of wood it is, to my under-educated eye it appears to be Katsura (due to the appearance of transparent wash typical of lower-quality Katsura boards). It is a good thickness (30mm, or about 1-3/8 inches) and the seller reports it is in fairly good shape. The stones appear to be typical glass biconvex, ~8mm in height, and despite what the seller said in the listing title the bowls appear to be plastic.

I have an identical board. It is indeed katsura. They used to sell them at Samarkand when it still operated as an online retail outfit. It is a nice board. Whoever won the auction will be quite pleased with it. Each of the two sections is made from two joined pieces of wood. The line is almost invisible.

Unfortunately, my board spent years in storage under less than optimal conditions. It is still a very nice board, but one of the panels on one of the sections has discolored at a different rate than the others. I should live to replace it, but I'm in the same situation as OP. It is really difficult to find that quality in slotted boards these days.