Life In 19x19

I just got back from a vacation in Greece, where I unexpectedly found a lovely go set with clam shell stones and an old go book by Arthur Smith in the house where I was staying. I played through parts of the book on rainy days, and had a wonderful time exploring go without the internet. The set was so nice that even my daughter decided to temporarily drop her disdainful attitude towards my hobby and played a few games with me. Greece was nice too.

daal, that's nice. You wouldn't happen to have any (close-up) shots of the shell stones by any chance, would you?

daal wrote:...her disdainful attitude towards my hobby...

...some work ahead...

Oddly, I failed to take any pictures, except for the problems in the back of the book. The stones were size 31, relatively new (the boxes they came in were still there, full of marbles) and they were in nice dark bowls. The board was a portable two piece one, but oddly on the reverse side, someone had inked on a 10x10 grid. I suspect it was someone like me who felt go would be easier if you put the stones on the squares instead of the intersections.

daal wrote:(the boxes they came in were still there, full of marbles)

Actual marbles, or is that code for something?

daal wrote:someone had inked on a 10x10 grid.

10x10 intersections or 10x10 squares? Could it have been a chess board...?
But chess and shogi are both 9x9 intersections (8x8 squares). XiangQi is 9x10 intersections (32x2 squares, with a divider)...

Pente?

Actual marbles

It was 10x10 lines = 9x9 squares. Perfect for playing 9x9 go using the squares instead of the intersections. I have no idea what else it was designed for...

daal wrote:Actual marbles

It was 10x10 lines = 9x9 squares. Perfect for playing 9x9 go using the squares instead of the intersections. I have no idea what else it was designed for...

9x9 squares could very well be for shogi.

But chess and shogi are both 9x9 intersections (8x8 squares)

Shogi is 9x9 squares, not 8x8.

I have heard that Gomoku is sometimes played on 10x10.

There used to be go boards in Japan -- probably still are -- with a 9x9 square, 10x10 intersection grid on the back. People used the squares to play shogi, the intersections to play go or gomoku. I heard of beginners playing 10x10 go before I heard of them playing 9x9 go.

My (modern) cheap Taiwanese go board has xiangqi on the back.

Further to Bill Spight's post, on ebay there are currently 10x10 magnetic go sets for sale, shipping from Hong Kong. Presumably, in some parts of the world 10x10 is not considered all that unusual.

tundra wrote:Further to Bill Spight's post, on ebay there are currently 10x10 magnetic go sets for sale, shipping from Hong Kong. Presumably, in some parts of the world 10x10 is not considered all that unusual.

Interesting - why not! And 46 of them have already been sold! Even numbers of lines have the physical advantage on a folding board that there's no line on the joint. As for the effect on strategy and tactics, there is no proportionally unique point (tengen) for one player to take advantage of, but there's also no desirable middle point on the sides. You can't play it on many servers - but you could play it here...

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c 10x10 go
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$$ ------------------------[/go]

tundra wrote:Further to Bill Spight's post, on ebay there are currently 10x10 magnetic go sets for sale, shipping from Hong Kong. Presumably, in some parts of the world 10x10 is not considered all that unusual.

Thanks, ordered two of ’em (no shipping costs, for $10 they’re a good deal)

daal wrote:[..]

$$c 10x10 go
$$ ------------------------
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$$ | . . , . . . . , . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ------------------------

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c 10x10 go
$$ ------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . , . . . . , . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . |
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ------------------------[/go]

Interestingly, the Hoshi points are on 4-4 on these boards

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c 10x10 go
$$ ------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . , . . . |
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$$ | . . . , . . , . . . |
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ------------------------[/go]

Bonobo wrote:Interestingly, the Hoshi points are on 4-4 on these boards

that would be a shogi board then.