The Go board - generally referred to by its Japanese name goban - typically measures between 45 and 48 cm (18 and 19 in) in length (from one player's side to the other) and 42 to 44 cm (17 to 17 in) in width. Chinese boards are slightly larger, as a traditional Chinese Go stone is slightly larger to match. The board is not square; there is a 15:14 ratio in length to width, because with a perfectly square board, from the player's viewing angle the perspective creates a foreshortening of the board. The added length compensates for this.? There are two main types of boards: a table board similar in most respects to other game boards like that used for chess, and a floor board, which is its own free-standing table and at which the players sit.

The traditional Japanese goban is between 10 and 18 cm (3.9 and 7.1 in) thick and has legs; it sits on the floor (see picture to right), as do the players. It is preferably made from the rare golden-tinged Kaya tree (Torreya nucifera), with the very best made from Kaya trees up to 700 years old. More recently, the related California Torreya (Torreya californica) has been prized for its light color and pale rings, as well as its less expensive and more readily available stock. The natural resources of Japan have been unable to keep up with the enormous demand for the slow-growing Kaya trees; both T. nucifera and T. californica must be of sufficient age (many hundreds of years) to grow to the necessary size, and they are now extremely rare at the age and quality required, raising the price of such equipment tremendously. In Japan, harvesting of live Kaya trees is banned, as the species is protected; the tree must die of natural causes before it is harvested. Thus, an old-growth, floor-standing Kaya goban can easily cost in excess of US$10,000 with the highest-quality examples costing more than $60,000.

Other, less expensive woods often used to make quality table boards in both Chinese and Japanese dimensions include Hiba (Thujopsis dolabrata), Katsura (Cercidiphyllum japonicum), Kauri (Agathis), and Shin Kaya (various varieties of spruce, commonly from Alaska, Siberia and China's Yunnan Province). So-called Shin Kaya is a potentially confusing merchant's term: shin means "new", and thus shin kaya is best translated "faux kaya", because the woods so described are biologically unrelated to Kaya. Beginning in the early 2000s, some boards have been made by compositing strips of bamboo to create a material called "bamboo plywood" or "plybamboo". The resulting board is very durable and has a unique aesthetic, while being relatively inexpensive.