Games' Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Players, Pawns, and Power-Ups

1. Games from Long Ago

1 1 Games from Long Ago Games and gaming have been part of our history since time immemorial. The following games have roots that go far back into humanity’s ancient past and can still be found in play today across the world. 1. GO The roots of go extend back four thousand years in China, making it one of the oldest surviving board games. According to legend, it all began when an emperor dissatisfied with his son’s irreverent behavior had one of the imperial generals invent a game to teach the boy tactics, strategy, and concentration. The emperor’s son apparently thought little of the game and discarded it, saying that whoever played first would always win. This angered the emperor, who had his son beheaded and his general chosen as the heir. A Japanese ambassador to the Chinese court is believed to have brought the game to Japan in the eighth century. The Japanese court’s preoccupation with go sparked a wave of interest among the upper classes. Around 1600, the Japanese shogun appointed a “go minister” who was in charge of all go-related activities in the empire and was the personal teacher of the shogun. “Go houses,” or academies, were set up to instruct the Japanese nobles in the game, and as competition heated up between them, the Japanese became very adept go players. 2 Games’ Most Wanted™ Meanwhile in China, go remained popular, but never reached the fervor it did in Japan. In the twentieth century, Chinese players took a three-stone handicap from their Japanese counterparts. Today, due to sponsorship and support by the Chinese government, the game’s popularity and player skill have increased exponentially. Marco Polo is rumored to have brought a go set back to Europe from his Eastern travels, but the game never took off in the West. Even today, Western countries have yet to produce a truly world-class player that equals or exceeds their counterparts in the East. 2. CHESS This classic game traces its roots back through the Middle and Far East. In India, it was known as chaturanga and historians agree the earliest versions date back to the sixth century . Likely invented during the time of the Gupta Empire, the name chaturanga means “four divisions” and refers to the four arms of the military at the time: infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariots. The modern equivalents of these pieces are the pawns, knights, bishops, and rooks. They were joined by a king and a counselor, known now as the king and queen pieces. Sometime later, chaturanga was introduced to Persia, where it became a popular pastime for the nobility. This version , shatranj, looked and was played similarly to today’s game. Relevant tactical and checkmate problems were as true then as they are now, and some Internet chess servers allow players to play shatranj. In the seventh century, following the Islamic conquest of Persia, the game spread throughout the Muslim world and then on to Europe. Both Russia and Europe had versions of chess by AD 1000. Rule changes that altered pawn movement and introduced castling became part of chess around the year 1300. The fifteenth century is when the last major Games from Long Ago 3 rule changes occurred, granting the bishop and queen pieces more powerful movements. 3. CHECKERS Known as draughts in Britain and other English-speaking nations , checkers finds its roots in an Egyptian game known as alquerque, which used a five-by-five checkered game board with similar rules to today’s checkers. Around AD 1100, a Frenchman got the idea of playing alquerque on a chess board, which expanded the number of pieces to twelve on each side. It was soon discovered that making jumps mandatory made the game more challenging and exciting; this version was called jeu force (“obligatory game”). The game was exported to England (and then America) in roughly the sixteenth century, using the rules still in place today. In 1847, the first world championship was awarded to Andrew Anderson, a Scotsman. To heighten competitive play, two move restrictions were developed that began the game in a random manner. Today, there are three move restrictions used in tournament play, though most casual games around the world disregard or aren’t even aware of them. 4. MANCALA More a family of board games than a singular one, mancala is sometimes referred to as a “sowing” or...