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.
Actually though googling for travel Go boards is bringing up some strange combinations
This one looks kind of interesting
Oooo the bag from Hebsacker Verlag looks very interesting. I wish I’m still in Europe T_T
Let’s see if the shop owners here can find something similar…
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
I have this magnetic set
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.
Don’t ignore the main advantage of this. You are innocently advertising that you are a Go player to every passerby!
A solid move until OGS merch arrives.
Plz tell me this is in the works
See: OGS Merchandise?
Obviously OGS merch needs to include an excellent portable Goban for Chinitsu and others.
With a big OGS logo on tengen
Totally would buy
Sounds cool!
I think I will get this one, though: Hebsacker Verlag: go-spiele.de - > Travel Go Set
I never really thought about it before reading this thread, but this pandemic spring and summer I’ll definitely need a portable set to play in parks!
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).
Damn I missed the “it” word at first readthrough
How cheap is 3d printing these days?? I would have thought this is way overkill given that a go board is just a flat square with some lines. Don’t get me wrong, it looks great
Cost of 3D printing is pretty much material cost now, not that pricy to be honest.
Only issue is the material itself won’t feel as good as wood (and could be too slippery)
It’s a coincidence “In Sente” showing her 4-pieces board few days after me talking about a similar thing. I just wanted to share that.
I don’t know how cheap it could be, I don’t know anything about 3d printing, but I know the issues of making things yourself: find materials, work them, finish, be precise enough not to make an ugly piece… downloading a file, giving to a printer and having a reliable result is so easier.
One could do the same with wood and a CNC machine. It would be more expensive probably but the result would be way better.
Also using some plywood and a sharpie should work, but we come back to the “be precise, be careful, do a good job” thing. Which is incredibly funny and rewarding for hobbyists, but not everybody is a hobbyist.
My friend sent me a couple pictures of his 4-pieces wooden board.
Not the best glamour shots, I fear.
Here you can see side magnets to hold it together
The manufacturer should be 6 brothers.
I went to their website but couldn’t find a similar board.
Just linking this up, sorry if already mentioned as an option. Slightly smaller than full size but might be an option?