I don't know much about Go, but I'm interested in picking up a copy of this classic game.

However, I can't see spending $100+ on it. I do enjoy quality bits in a game, but something like $20-40 would be closer to my price range.

What do I look for in a good Go set, if it's to be the only one I will ever buy and will keep forever?

What makes up the minimum "nice" set?

Where is a good place to get affordable sets?

There's a good minimum nice set (the 'Club Set') here for US$48:
http://www.samarkand.net/Web_store/web_store.cgi?page=sets.h...

I'd say the minimum for a nice set is a full-sized non-folding wooden board, wooden bowls, and glass stones. I like 8.5mm stones myself, but most people seem to prefer 9 or 9.5mm.

The club set is a low end but nice set.

If cardboard and hard plastic are OK, you can find them for $10 or so in many Asian supermarkets or in various places online. These boards are totally playable, but just not very pretty. Glass and thin wood (as Phil recommended) is a good middle point between cardboard+plastic and thick wood+slate/shell.

The one thing to avoid are the sets with tiny stones; make sure that the board (whether cardboard or wood) is at least 15" on a side and that the stones match. When you go smaller than this, it gets too hard to place stones in a crowded position, even if you hold them correctly. Standard size for a board is about 17"x18", a tiny bit smaller is OK but not much.

Can you buy these in Japan for much cheaper? Where would I send a Japanese friend to buy me a high quality set for real cheap?

Ryan

Direct your Japanese friend to the bargain section of this website for ludicrously cheap go stuff:
http://www.kurokigoishi.co.jp/online_shop/index.html

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I would second www.samarkand.net for good deals on *nice* go equipment in the U.S.

I would also offer a suggestion. Get a decent set. If you like the game, you will want one someday. So save up a bit of dough. Get a good medium range set:

Professional Home Set #SPP1F at samarkand

Beautiful enough to display at home, and will hold up for a lifetime of play. I have the same set, and I'm happy I paid the cost every time I play a game on it.

Further to this I'd say: start with the cheapest set you can find (a roll of plastic and some chipped glass stones -- these can be obtained from newsagents etc in your nearest Chinatown):



Then if you get hooked on go you'll end up buying an expensive set anyway. You can try to fight it, but odds are you'll end up with something like this after a few months:

A board that folds will have crease lines. But a cloth-backed vinyl board can easily be rolled/unrolled. If you keep it rolled face out, it will probably last longer, and will flatten out without much difficulty for playing.

For stones, you can get lead-filled plastic stones of regulation size, which look and feel just fine. See for yourself:


You can get this set, with simpler plastic bowls for the stones, for $43 including shipping from www.yutopian.com

I think this is perhaps the best quality you can get in your desired price range (or not too far from it.) To store the board, all you need is a plastic tube, or maybe two tubes taped together. Grocery stores abound with these, for example powdered drink mixes.

I think these options might be more in line with what you're looking for:

http://www.chessusa.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&S...

Ludicrously cheap? They might be great bargains, but the least expensive set I saw there was hundreds of dollars.

The original poster specified a price range of around $20 to $40. Here's a comparison, out of all the links provided here so far, of all the sets that are anywhere near this price.

Ah, I think I got carried away when Ryan -- not the OP -- asked for a cheap high quality set. For example, at kurokigoishi.co.jp 36000 yen (about US$300) gets you a 2" shin kaya board, cherry bowls, and moon grade 8.8mm stones. The stones alone would cost you that much at a US site.

But reading it again I think you're right and Ryan was after something even cheaper than that.

I think it's pretty clearn that there's no way to get anything 'nice' for $20-$40. You can get a wooden board or get glass stones with plastic bowls, but you just can't get the whole thing for that price. $80 or so would do, as long as you don't want wooden bowls.

OK, you are starting to convince me I don't want a cheap set.

Someone tell me about the kind of set shown in the photo sbzine posted above. That looks pretty nice - pretty pricey? What are the materials used in a set like this?:


I'm thinking something like the Traveler at Samarkand:
http://www.samarkand.net/Web_store/web_store.cgi?page=HF20D....
with plastic bowls, but upgrading from 7 mm thin stones to the 8 mm stones. That should run me about $85. The folding board seems more practical for storage. Any thoughts on this idea? sbzine said most people prefer 9 or 9.5 mm stones, but Samarkand doesn't seem to carry them.

Also, please comment on this "deluxe" set at TimeWellSpent for $ 42.95:
http://www.timewellspent.org/html/gamepage.php?id=931
Why don't I want something like this? Why so much cheaper than Samarkand - crappy wood?


Thanks for all the info so far. I've been playing some online tutorials and I'm starting to get hooked already!

Go El Cheapo draw your board and use different color 2 liter bottle caps.

I'm more or less facing the same question as you---here's what I think, as a complete amateur in these matters. The board is pretty thick, but its colour is somehwat off from the regular kaya (= Torreya nucifera, http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&q=torreya...), but this could be because of the colour of the wax or whatever the wood was treated with. It resembles the board here: http://www.samarkand.net/Web_store/web_store.cgi?page=KAY2D..... , or here: http://www.schaakengo.nl/www_schaakengo2/goart.html (look at the hiba cedar board). As you can see, not cheap.

There seems to be a grain on the stones, but that could also be a picture artefact. If it isn't an artefact, the grain isn't running straight, indicating lower quality shell-stones: jutsiyo or tsuki (what I think Samarkand calls 'Samarkand grade'). But still quite expensive.

It could also be glass, but somehow I don't think that if someone spends a truckload of cash on a thick piece of hiba or kaya, he would stoop to ... glass, yuck. However, I know for a fact that I cannot convince my girlfriend to buy me a $500 set for a game she doesn't even know.

It sounds like you are buying into the "Go board aesthetic" mindset. Now that you see just how nasty a $20 set is, a set which pleases all the senses looks a lot more desirable. Actually, I agree with that. There are lots of great pictures of sets here on BGG. I recommend you look at images of sets you might want, in high resolution. But the experience of playing is also one of touch, and smell, and sound. I agree that cheap unweighted plastic stones are not nearly as nice to use, especially if they come with plastic burrs you have to file off.

But once you get past the "nasty" stage, what are you spending your money on? You want your stones to go "tok" when you place them on the board? Do you like the smell of Kaya? Hey, if you do, go for it. For myself, I'm very pleased with my rollup board and weighted plastic stones. The main thing I want an abstract set to do is present the game clearly and accurately, and then get out of the way so I can think. Click on the image of my set above, and take a look at the hi-res image. What don't you get from that, that you want to spend another $40 for?

I'm sure lots of people will answer, they get a lot of satisfaction from their wooden board and clamshell/slate stones. And I don't dispute that! I'm glad that they do. All I'm saying is, before you shell out the money, ask yourself, what do you really want?

You're doomed now!

That looks to me like a thick tabletop hiba or shin-kaya board. Probably once you put that together with stones and bowls of similar quality, you're talking in the $500 or so range. Once in a while you'll see a special deal somewhere that brings the price down. I got a 2" hiba board with 10mm mid-grade shell+slate and very nice bowl for around $400, but that was about 8 years ago, and even then was a pretty great deal.

9+mm stones are nicer, but unusual in glass because glass is considered the "cheaper" stones (vs. slate and shell). I'm not a big fan of hinged boards because I've seen several boards where the hinges became loose, making it hard to get the board to lie flat. I'd prefer either a solid sheet (harder to store but more durable) or a rollup or cardboard board (which are cheap enough to be almost disposable if problems show up).

The board is very thin in this set, not worth much. But if those bowls are actual wood, as they appear in the picture, then the price is worth it for just the bowls! I'm guessing it's so cheap because TWS is selling them all off and wants to clear up their inventory. I would call and ask, if the stones are glass and the bowls are wood, then definitely get it. If the stones are plastic and the bowls are full sized, probably still worth it. If the bowls are small or non-wood, then it's not a very good deal.

If you want something cheap to start, maybe the Club set from Samarkand would be one of your best choices, but if you want to start with something a little better without spending too much money, the Professional Home Set also from Samarkand is a great option, with a thick Agathis board, 8mm stones, and authentic shin-kaya bowls.Now, if money is not an issue, you can try with the more expensive sets, like the Traditional or Deluxe Home sets, or even browse the bargain section at http://www.kurokigoishi.co.jp/online_shop/english/index.html. Be warned, though, this items are shipped from Japan!

That's one of Jim's many boards. I think all of his boards are kaya or agathis from memory, so I'd guess that the photo is of a kaya table board.

Kaya (a conifer) is very expensive, but shin-kaya (="new kaya" = spruce) has a similar appearance for a much lower price. You can also get boards made of agathis (=pine, apparently popular in Korea), hiba (=cedar), and kastsura (=magnolia, a dark wood, very popular for Japanese boards). You can also get chinese torreya boards, which are related to and supposedly similar to kaya (but generally of lesser craftsmanship than a random Japanese board). It's probably best to look through google images and see what sort of wood you like best. I've got a shin-kaya board and it's very beautiful, so I can happily recommend that.

There are two main types of boards: table and floor. Table boards are a plank of wood that sits on your table, and floor boards are a piece of furniture, with legs, that sits on your floor. Table boards are cheaper, and if you want to sit on the floor to play you can just plonk them on a very low bedside table or on top of a dictionary or whatever.

Table boards come in two main sizes (heights): 1" (or thereabouts) and 2" (or thereabouts). There's not much difference here except that the taller boards look more impressive (showing more wood grain) and are a bit less practical on a tall table.

Finally, boards are made by joining planks of wood together side by side. The most expensive boards are cut from a single piece (with no joins), and the cheapest have three pieces joined side by side.

Here are some examples:


2" kaya table board, 9.5mm shell + slate stones(?)


Looks like a 1" katsura 2-piece table board


Foreground: 2" agathis table board, 8mm stones
Background: Looks like a 4" agathis floor board


I would advise against a folding board; they look terrible and don't save a huge amount of space anyway. If you want something portable, slotted board (3 pieces, using pegs and holes, instead of 2 pieces and a hinge) is better in every respect. But you're still carrying around a large quantity of heavy stones in either case.


I forgot to mention earlier -- the mm refers to the height of the stones rather than the diameter. So all of the samarkand stones will have the same footprint, it's just a question of whether you want them thin and coinlike (7mm), resembling a mentos (8.5mm), nearly spherical (10.5mm), or somewhere in between. The ones in Jim's picture (on the kaya board) are 9.5mm, I think. Some people have trouble holding anything thicker than that, so I'd treat 9.5mm as the upper limit and maybe 8mm as the lower if you're not into the coinlike thing.

There are many types of stones. In order of quality / expense, these are: plastic, ing (plastic with metal core for weight), glass, and shell / slate. The plastic and glass stones come in Chinese and Japanese types. The Chinese ones have a flat bottom (i.e., are hemispherical), and I find them hard to use because you have to flip half of them over when you draw them from your bowl. So get the Japanese ones!

There are many classes of shell + slate, and the lowest ones are comparable in price with the best glass stones. The grade refers to how straight / parallel the lines of the shell grain are, and also whether you can expect any chipped or cracked stones. I went with 2nd grade shell stones myself and am very happy with them (couple of chips here and there but they look great, even the odd ones with a cury grain).


The board looks like MDF / particleboard with a veneer. If you're going down that route, you can pick the same thing up in Chinatown for a quarter of the price. The bowls look nicer than plastic though, and it might be worth getting just for the bowls and stones (and get a cheap shin-kaya board from Samarkand).

Speaking of bowls, there are various kinds of those also. There are the standard square plastic bowls (which are fine), plastic ing bowls (used for a weird variant scoring system), straw bowls, and various wooden bowls. I would avoid the ing bowls from an aesthetic perspective (as they stack / dispense the stones , so you're not dipping your fingers into a brimming bowl. I'd also avoid the straw, as they're Chinese and usually come with flat-bottom stones. The wooden bowls come in two styles: Japanese and Chinese (sometimes called Go Seigen style). The Chinese ones are shallower and wider, and a bit easier to use, but it's a matter of preference.


Straw bowls


Ing bowls


Chinese style


Japanese style

2.5" four piece Kaya wood board. Color is a little off though, due to the lighting in the room we were playing in.

Stones are 9.5mm Hana grade shell stones. The set also came with two large Keyaki bowls.

~$650 shipped from Japan (to Indiana, USA)...

Just picked up a very nice starter set fro $24.95 from a local game shop. (Something to Do, Louisville, KY).

It's put out by CHH Inc. (Since 1983). It's a solid 19x19 board with a felt bottom, glass stones and plastic bowls with lids.

After a quick Google Search, I found it even cheaper, here:
http://www.unclesgames.com/product_info.php/products_id/2192

Anyway, it's the cheapest I've seen (barring a vinyl mat) and seems like a nice set for someone who's trying our go but doesn't want to splurge until they learn the game well and like it.

Please excuse my ignorance, but are you saying this nice board came in four pieces? Was some assembly required? Thanks

Thick tabletop boards are usually several pieces of wood glued together. I'm not sure whether this is done because it's cheaper to get four moderately sized pieces of wood than one huge one, or to prevent warping by sawing up the wood and flipping alternating pieces before gluing. In any case, in a board like the one pictured, there will never be assembly required, don't worry.

That's always been the story that I've been told. Apparently a single piece of wood that size would be fairly likely to warp over time. When I ordered the board I was expecting an eight piece board (which is what was advertised), whether a four piece board is "better" in some way, I have no idea. :-)

Jim