In previous parts of this tutorial I’ve written about the basics of Othello’s strategy, quiet and loud moves and about starting the game. If you already know all this and you’ve played a dozen or tens games, you might have noticed one thing. The moves made at the edge of the board have a huge impact on victory or defeat. In the next lesson we will discuss the edge play.
Continue reading “Othello tutorial, p.4 – Playin’ on the edge!”
If you like old American movies you could see people playing Gin Rummy. Why exactly this game? There are few reasons! First, this is a game for smart people. Secondly, this is a game with dramatic ending. Thirdly… Gin Rummy has unique taste of the risk mixed with a cool strategy.
Recently I wrote that Chess and Checkers are two very different games with no common roots. Despite this, there were people who tried to merge this games and results were fascinating. One of those people was George Swinnerton Parker (1866-1952), who created a fantastic game of Camelot. It’s not popular today, but believe me – it’s an underestimated jewel of board games.
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.
Continue reading “Do you think Chess is harder than Checkers (Draughts)? Here’s why you’re wrong!”
If you are looking for a relaxing but not too easy game to play with friends, Malefiz is a great choice. Unfortunately, the basic variant is for 4 players only. What to do if you gather a larger group of 5 or 6 people? No problem. There’s a variant on a larger board!
Continue reading “Malefiz for 6 players”
I wrote about 64-square draughts variants and about three games from orthogonal draughts family. Every time I mentioned that “draughts” is not one game. It’s a group of games with some common features. So far I described only games played on a 64-square board, although with very different rules. Now it’s time to present games on larger boards with 80 squares (8×10), 100 squares (10×10) and even 144 squares (12×12).
I think everyone knows what domino is. Often we treat dominoes as blocks for children, a simple toy used to learning to count. Sometimes we play with kids because this game seems simple. In my country (Poland) it’s rather unusual to see adults playing dominoes. What a pity! This game is more addictive than you think, and besides, it has a fascinating history. You can play many games with one set of domino tiles, just like you can play many games with one deck of cards.
I wrote about the game of whist, which was the favorite game of Phileas Fogg, protagonist in the novel “In eighty days around the world” by Jules Verne.
I wanted to show you a game that Phileas Fogg could play if he had really lived. I had a problem because there are many variants of Whist, and the Verne’s book is not clear about Fogg’s favorite variant. I already described simplest Whist variant but I also pointed out, that Fogg could play so called “Solo Whist”. This variant was especially popular in the XIX century in England and today is still known in UK.
Continue reading “Play Whist like Phileas Fogg – part II, Solo Whist”
Most board games have fairly simple boards. Usually with square fields arranged in simple shape or a set of intersecting lines. Rarely boards have circular shape or fields arranged in interesting pattern.
There are of course a few games that have fancy boards. I already described Russian game Spider and flies, which is an interesting example. Now I’m going to describe another Russian game with fantastic board – Vsadniki.
Cribbage is really very… English card game.
It has not only English history (described below), but also “English soul”. This game is somehow noble. You can relax with it, but you need to think during play. This is not a game for idiots, and not without reason you can buy books about cribbage. This game is somehow not suitable for gambling, but of course you can play any game for money.
Continue reading “Cribbage – noble English game. Rules & Basics”
Bona Ludo 