Go equipment

Go equipment consists of the objects that are necessary in order to play the game of Go which originated in China. Although the equipment is simple, there is a varying degree of quality and material used in making the equipment, from the economical to the extremely valuable.

The oldest known surviving Go equipment is a board carved from rock that dates from the Han Dynasty in China. Other examples of ancient equipment can be found in museums in Japan and Korea.

The Go board, called the goban 碁盤 in Japanese, is the playing surface on which to place the stones. The standard board is marked with a 19×19 grid. Smaller boards include a 13×13 grid and a 9×9 grid used for shorter games that are often used to teach beginners. Some 19×19 boards have a 13×13 grid on the reverse side. 17×17 was used in historical times. Chinese boards are generally square; Japanese and Korean boards are slightly longer than wide, so that they appear square when viewed from a normal playing position. In Asian go parlors, the tables are slightly lower than the typical game table so that the players can clearly see the positions of the stones.

Traditional Japanese goban usually follow the dimensions:

(1 inch = 25.4 mm; 1 shaku = 100 bu = 303 mm)

Go boards fall into several types or styles.

Maintaining wooden boards requires that they be properly stored in a humidity and temperature controlled environment to prevent discoloration, warping, cracking, woodworm, mold and other serious wear. Prolonged exposure to sunlight can bleach the board. Boards transported between climates with significantly differing humidity levels may be subjected to warping or cracking due to rapidly changing moisture content in the wood.

Go stones, or go-ishi 碁石,棋子, are round objects placed on the board. They are colored either black or white, for each player, and normally number 181 for black and 180 for white (or sometimes 180 for each).

There are two styles or shapes of stones depending on where a player obtains them from:

The material varies. Some stones are made out of plastic, glass, porcelain or marble, but the traditional Japanese and Korean stones are made out of slate for black and clamshell for white. Chinese style stones can be made of glass, but to be considered true yunzi they must be sintered. The exact method of creation is a well-kept secret and was in fact lost for a time in the early 20th century due to instability within the country.

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Wikipedia