Should we let the kids win?

Encouraging a child to develop a passion for games can be quite a good idea. Passion can be a fuel to self-improvement and your kid don’t necessarily have to play chess. Even games with an element of luck may stimulate player’s brain. Whats more, cards and boards are beautiful objects and this is also good for child development. Since you are reading this text, you certainly understand it, but how can you pass it to your child? How can you stimulate a passion for challenges that come from games?

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Games as a sport, field of knowledge, art and a mean of self-improvement

Why do wee need games? To enjoy them of course! And it may be a joy of more subtle kind, similar to this coming from sciences and arts. Improving your skills in particular game can be also a mean of improving yourself. If we want to really enjoy games, we have to see their complex nature.

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Camelot – gra, w której możesz poszarżować

Pisałem ostatnio o tym, że szachy i warcaby to dwie bardzo różne gry, nie mające żadnych wspólnych korzeni. Mimo to znaleźli się ludzie, którzy postanowili jakoś je połączyć. Jednym z nich był George Swinnerton Parker (1866-1952), który stworzył fantastyczną grę Camelot. Dziś jest to gra trochę zapomniana, a szkoda!

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Do you think Chess is harder than Checkers (Draughts)? Here’s why you’re wrong!

In my country (Poland) Chess is called a “royal game” while the Checkers are known as “Chess of proletariat”. Such terms clearly classify the first game as noble and worthwhile and the second as silly or worse. Many people think they sound like experts when they speak about the superiority of the Chess over the Checkers (Draughts). In fact, such people show only their ignorance. Chess is not harder than Checkers … and vice versa. In the case of non-trivial games, you should generally avoid speaking about a superiority of one game over another.

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Do games with element of luck develop your mind?

There are many games with an element of luck – games with dice, cards, dominoes or letters. Some people believe these games are “worse”, unworthy of study and you can’t by a true master in such games because everything depends on luck. I would like to refute this image. Games with the random element can be very interesting and they can build your brain, but in a different way than purely strategic games. Besides in practice, even in games with no random elements, there is some element of luck.

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