Recently I’ve playing Go regularly at a cafe with my friends. That lead to the issue of bringing a go board to said cafe.
What we have tried is:
Magnetic go board: worst decision ever. The stones are too small, can’t be placed using normal method and most importantly when you lose nuclear tesuji doesn’t work
Rolled up leather go board: a much better choice. Still, but I miss the sound of stone placed on the board. And because of the nature of the board, it’s a bit hard to slide the stone on the board (sticky).
So during research I found something like this one:
This looks portable enough, but with a fatal flaw: the board is the case itself. It won’t last. I have a similar folded board (just missing the handle and no bowl) and because of regular movement, it’s already full of scratches and chip.
So I’m hoping someone would know a board similar to the one above but, like, has a come along backpack that fit or something (you know normal backpack don’t fit a Go board). Just a picture is enough (so I can show to the various shop owner to order), or maybe even better a link to particular shops in china/korea/japan or something (I can order stuffs from those country fairly easily )
A pretty normal foldable wooden board won’t do? Definitely fits into my backpack, though I might have one that’s bigger than what you consider ‘normal’.
My backpack fits a 15-inch laptop and 2 changes of clothes and headphones and charger etc so I think it’s already a bit bigger than common backpacks… I think backpacks that are tall enough for go boards are usually too tall for daily uses so it’s not very common here…
Yeah I just added explanation on that idea when you reply lol. I mean if I buy a backpack tall enough for a go board, I’d rather find a go board that come along with its own specifically designed backpack…
A friend of mine has a 4-pieces board.
It’s like a foldable one but it has magnets instead of hinges. Pieces are squares.
When packed it’s very portable.
I think he bought it in South Korea.
This is the best portable option I’ve found. It’s really amazing.
Not full size, but it’s big enough to play comfortably and the magnets are strong enough to play vertically (I have it on my fridge door for correspondence games). 100% recommendable
It’s slightly smaller than a typical set, but plenty big to comfortably play with. Of course, it has the drawback that you mention about another product in that the board surface is the outside of the case.
For something that does not have a special bag, perhaps wrapping it in a towel is another way to keep it protected, and serves to follow Douglas Adams’ wise advice.
Magnetic go board: worst decision ever. The stones are too small, can’t be placed using normal method
I’d like to point out that there exist regular-size magnetic go boards. There also exist magnetic go boards which are about 80% of the regular size; in my opinion that’s a pretty good compromise for a travel set.
If you meet some cheap thin wood go board (easy to find and buy here in China) you can cut it yourself in two and then use a strong adhesive band to link them together.
Not complicated, light weight, and you can renew the link every couple of years in case of an intensive use.
Chinese stones usually come with a very practical bag to carry them and they may come with very light weight bowls (rattan).