Go is a game of strategy, originated in China around 4000 years ago. It is generally considered the world’s oldest board game. I’ve never played myself, but it is very popular in China, Japan and Korea. Anyway, my son asked me to make a Go board for him.

The Go board is an 18 x 18 grid of squares (actually they are slightly rectangular), similar to a big checkers board. Each rectangle is about 7/8” x 15/16”. There are many ways to make the grid, such as wood burning, ink, carving or painting. I decided to make my grid using a glue-up of white oak rectangles, separated by a walnut grid. Here is how it went

First I ripped 18 oak strips. Then I ripped 36 thin walnut strips for the grid






Here is the jig I built for cutting the thin walnut strips






Then I glued up alternating oak strips and walnut strips




Next step was to cut that panel crosswise into 18 strips, insert walnut strips between each, and glue that up








Then i sanded everything down, and glued the board to a piece of 2’” thick particle board I saved from an old pool table.




Flipped the board iover, counterbored the substrate and attached the feet






The game board has 9 “star points”, which are dots evenly spaced on the board. To add these, I drilled holes in the designated spots, and then cut some walnut blanks to fit into the holes. I used a pencil sharpener to round off and taper the blanks. Then I hammered them into the holes, sawed them off and sanded flush








Finally I wrapped the board in walnut and finished it with gloss polyurethane












Now my son wants me to play him, so I guess I have to read up on how to go about that.

Very interesting project and beautiful execution.

Dude . . . your skills never fail to impress.

And that's a lot of work for a game you've never played!

Nicely done!




“…so I guess I have to read up on how to go about that.

Looking good! I like the grain matched pattern/assembly.

Marvelous. The photos and documentation rival or surpass the master craftsmanship of the actual project. Always impressive, enjoyable and enlightening.

Thank you for your kind comments guys. My son hasn’t seen it yet. I am excited for him to come over!

Very nice Ray!

I used to love playing go. We had a board at the climbing gym

Huey trying to make sense of Go

dude, that is a gorgeous go board!! nice job!!

Very nice job sir, as others have commented, that’s a very nice grain matching piece. Awesome skills!

I think that my kid/grandkids asking me to build something for them is the only way that will bring me out of the woodworking retirement.

Very nice board. It must have been a bear to keep all the inserts aligned on the second go 'round. It's tricky with a chess board (j8 layers), so 18 took some planning. Well done.

Very cool! My mom was Japanese and we used to play when I was a kid. Still have the game.

Really nice

Want to come work on my boat flooring?

Didn’t think so!