awkward

[EdLee]

Photo from the AGA e-journal today, "The eighth annual Orlando Go Tournament was held April 12-13 in Orlando, FL."
Somehow I feel the players in the foreground were being "punished" for playing at board 1 ( (?) my guess).
(Some people would be ecstatic to play sitting on the floor with a nice set like that;
but I understand some people might have problems physically sitting on the floor for an extended period. )

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[skydyr]

Oh, they're sitting on chairs to help them get the "internet view" of the board, straight on with no perspective. It's really a favour to the new generation of go players to keep the board so low.

[EdLee]

skydyr, internet view.

[skydyr]

skydyr, internet view.

Have you never seen internet-only players standing up to get a better view of the board when they first start playing in person?

[EdLee]

Have you never seen internet-only players standing up to get a better view of the board when they first start playing in person?

Oh, not sure about that. But I remember at the US Open 2013, there was a young woman who was standing up to play all her games, looking down at the table board with such a view.

[Hushfield]

I've recently had that happen as well. I was playing a game with a friend, yet the table was too high to get a clear view of the board, so we put the board on our knees to have some more distance. I remember cursing my internet-only playing habits, but I don't think that actually is the problem.
We moved the board because the table was ridiculously high. If one could sit in seiza there would be no problem for distance to the board (but who can sit in seiza for an entire go game, these days? Not even pros can do that anymore). I'm guessing it's more of a problem of us having really bad posture, e.g.

A common go player's posture

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Therefore we put our face closer to the board then should normally be the case.

[logan]

By back hurts from just looking at that.

[BaghwanB]

The pro v. amateur handicap in that setup is the pro has to drop the stone from 4 inches up and where it lands, it stays...

Bruce "Bouncy Go" Young

[skydyr]

The pro v. amateur handicap in that setup is the pro has to drop the stone from 4 inches up and where it lands, it stays...

Bruce "Bouncy Go" Young

What happens if it alters the existing board position or, heaven forbid, a stone ends up in a spot where it's not on any intersection?

I can only imagine the drop tesuji to bludgeon space for that second eye.

[nagano]

Haha, you guys are reading way too much into this. I'm the guy on the right in the photo. Someone had just purchased the board off eBay but failed to bring any cushions to go with it. I tried to kneel at first, but it was a bit painful So we decided to use chairs, though that was also awkward. xD

[EdLee]

Nagano, thanks. What kind of stones were you using ? We're they the 10 mm ING stones ?

[nagano]

Nagano, thanks. What kind of stones were you using ? We're they the 10 mm ING stones ?

Actually they were slate and shell, I'm not sure of the exact thickness.

[BaghwanB]

The pro v. amateur handicap in that setup is the pro has to drop the stone from 4 inches up and where it lands, it stays...

Bruce "Bouncy Go" Young

What happens if it alters the existing board position or, heaven forbid, a stone ends up in a spot where it's not on any intersection?

I can only imagine the drop tesuji to bludgeon space for that second eye.

That devolves into the "bocce go" ruleset. Stones go to the closest intersection. Ties/disputes resolved by cushion fight.

Bruce "Play ALL the games" Young

[Bonobo]

[..] cushion fight

Best with Bataka Encounter Bats

Greetz, Tom

[BaghwanB]

Regional rules actually say kicking under the table is the preferred resolution tool, but this is with a floor board so...

Bruce "Lose the game but win the fight after" Young