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Equipment Review: Reversible Rosewood Go Board

Reversible “Rosewood” Go Board

Over­all Rat­ing: 2 / 10 Ponnuki

High­lights

  • If by rosewood they mean a cheap knock-off layer of “wanna-be” rosewood and then layered by cheap wood, then they accomplished their job.
  • Although the lines look semi-elegant in the product image, it ended up looking rather cheap and hard to see on the board.
  • DO NOT PURCHASE THIS BOARD!

Prod­uct Details (What They Claim)

  • One 48cm x 52cm x 3cm reversible board (19x19 Go and Chinese Chess).
  • “Exquisite and unique Chinese chess board made of solid rosewood inlaid with wooden lines.”
  • Weight: 5kg.

Detailed Review

Size & Weight: The board is standard size and nothing out of the ordinary. The weight however, is rather heavy and not great for portability.

Dura­bil­ity: The board was damaged during transit. Now normally I would not blame the board, but when I saw the damage and how the top layer was peeling off and the construction was so poor; I just can’t imagine that this board is that reliable.

Usabil­ity: You can play go stones on top of it, but otherwise, I would have hated using this board since the wood grain was irregular, ugly, and the lines on top were hard to see.

If I were to hypothesize how they built this board, I imagine them taking a random slab of wood, put either cheap laminate material that looks like rosewood around the board, and then painted it with a Chinese Chess board on one side and a Go board on the other. The grain was not unified, and the design quality of the board (e.g. the paint that draws out the lines of the Go board and the stars) was terrible. In fact, I was so unhappy with the board that I couldn’t even bring myself to take pictures of its miserable quality and just wanted to get my money back as soon as possible.

Bottom line: Do not buy this board. There is no link to purchase it, and I’m not even including the vendor I purchased it from for the sake of keeping one more person from making my mistake of purchasing it. And if you see other “rosewood” products with a similar claim to this one (e.g., reversible Chinese chess / go board), the products are most likely identical and I would stay far far away.

Last Updated April 10th, 2013.