marc
2018-06-07 07:54:13 UTC
The "official" go board sizes are 19, 9 and 13, in decreasing popularity order, being 19 the only one used in serious tournaments. Other sizes that have been used are 17, 11 and 25.
When googling with text "go board sizes why" you may get the following links, depending on your country and google profile. I have sorted by decreasing order of interest.
- Francis Road's take at https://www.britgo.org/bgj/01310 (1971!)
- a debate on a php forum (2014) https://lifein19x19.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=10814 that contains some interesting answers, but also noise
- a Quora entry that does not say much https://www.quora.com/Of-all-the-possible-sizes-why-is-19x19-the-standard-board-size-in-the-game-of-Go
- a senseis library entry, but information but no conclusive info https://senseis.xmp.net/?DifferentSizedBoards
Still, it seems that the go board sizes have no rationale whatsoever, but however if you are a somehow seasoned player it does not feel that these numbers have been randomly chosen. But what is the relationship between these numbers (9, 13, 19)?
When googling with text "go board sizes why" you may get the following links, depending on your country and google profile. I have sorted by decreasing order of interest.
- Francis Road's take at https://www.britgo.org/bgj/01310 (1971!)
- a debate on a php forum (2014) https://lifein19x19.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=10814 that contains some interesting answers, but also noise
- a Quora entry that does not say much https://www.quora.com/Of-all-the-possible-sizes-why-is-19x19-the-standard-board-size-in-the-game-of-Go
- a senseis library entry, but information but no conclusive info https://senseis.xmp.net/?DifferentSizedBoards
Still, it seems that the go board sizes have no rationale whatsoever, but however if you are a somehow seasoned player it does not feel that these numbers have been randomly chosen. But what is the relationship between these numbers (9, 13, 19)?