Go Equipment Review
I’m going to pretend that people read my little introduction to Go and are now looking for equipment to play with. When I read this review I was very excited until I remembered that I didn’t have anyone to play this with.
Currently I have a large painted board approximately 2cm thick with a 19×19 grid on one side and a 13×13 grid on the other. I also have a set of plastic covered lead stones which work well and come in ingenious bowls which automatically count to make sure you aren’t missing stones. This allows a method of scoring that can be accomplished by children too young to count, allowing them to play Go.
The Ing set. Designed for a variant of the game that doesn’t require numeracy skills.
I have a 5 year old who would probably have trouble counting but I can’t get her to really play the game.
This set is great and all, but the board doesn’t fold and the bowls and stones are heavy and unwieldy. I’d love a folding board with small bowls of stones as presented in that review. In fact, I drool over all sorts of equipment and the only way I can stop myself from going crazy is to be very pragmatic about my needs.
Would a thick Kaya table board with mulberry bowls filled with perfect biconvex slate and shell stones make a nice way to play? Sure, but where would I keep it and who would I convince to sit on the floor with me and play. I hate sitting on the floor, even when I was 8 sitting cross-legged at a school assembly I was dying for a chair. I am far from 8 now.
At least this Go equipment is much cheaper but I have to ask myself how practical it is. I could play Go in person outside of my house. I have the opportunities. There’s a Go club I should visit again. Their Go equipment is not great, painted bamboo boards and glass stones, but certainly no worse than this Bento set.
There’s a gentleman who tries to run Go tournaments at all the local gaming conventions. Fine, but he provides boards to play on. To make a travel board useful I would need to travel somewhere and have someone to play with. Unfortunately that is not the case.
Oh well, at least I can live vicariously through Ben.
