Different Sized Boards

    Keywords: Equipment

Table of contents

The game of go is usually played on a board with two orthogonal sets of 19 lines. Such a board is said to have a size of 19x19. It is certainly possible to play Go on a board of any desired size, so long as one can find a way to represent the board and has enough stones to fill it. Most computer go programs allow one to choose the board size. Some programs allow boards which are rectangular, such as a 13x19 board, while others require the board to be square. One can also take a typical 19x19 goban from the real world and shrink it to a smaller size using various techniques to mask out the nonessential lines.

This section is dedicated to exploring the implications on play of different sized boards that have existed historically, traditionally and experimentally, as well as any related culture.


Different sizes

5x5
Commonly used to introduce the game using capture go.
7x7
The smallest undecided board with an odd number of lines (Proofs?! --RobertJasiek).
9x9
Popular for fast and instructive games.
13x13
Also popular.
15x15?
Popular in China 1000 years ago.
17x17
Used in Tibetan go, and in China 500 years ago.
19x19
The default size in the current era.

See also Interesting board sizes and Small Board Go.

Unusual properties

Even-sized boards
Why not?
Small boards
17x17 and smaller.
Large boards
21x21 and beyond.
Rectangular boards
19x13 and others.
Linear boards
1xN

Miscellaneous

Unusual gobans
Boards with holes, strange shapes and other weirdness.
How to shrink a goban
Techniques to turn a standard board into a smaller one.

The biggest goban

NetGo
Possible rule set for non-standard boards

Elsewhere

"Ferdi" is, I believe, Andreas Fecke, a member of the Dragon Go Server. He has five accounts--one for only 5x5 go, one only for 7x7 go, one for 13x13, one for handicap games, and another for, apparently, only 19x19 traditional go. His rank is about 2d or 3d, so the difficulty of the problems is not suprising.

Quicksilvre

unkx80: Ferdi is Andreas Fecke. =)

Quicksilvre Yes! I am good. On the other hand, I guess I should have used the search function in the first place.


This is a copy of the living page "Different Sized Boards" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2004 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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