BOARD GAMES“A nice way to spend free time”

“Win, lose or draw. That's the question”

1. INTRO

Games are as old as humanity. It is thought that Egipcians used to play "The game of goose" 2 milleniums before Christ. It was invented to enjoy break between battles and they played over a stone board with a circle shape and decorated pigeon-holes.

The board represent an eliptical path from the border to the center that is the goal of the game. the accuracy of this origin is not absolutly proved and other researchs pointed out that this game's origin is set in Italy during the XVI century when King and his court used to play the game of the goose; or in the XI century, invented by the Templars.

Ludo was played in the Indian Empire. Emperor, Akbar "The great" made built a giant board over the Palace gardens. He threw 20 shells to get the advance scoring, pieces/counters were maidens and the goal was to achieve the center of the board that was the Emperor throne where the winner woman got an erotic prize. They called this game parchisi that is one number in Indian language.

The British took Ludo to Europe in the XIX century and they changed girls for ivory counters; and shells by shakers with dice. These items were already used in "the game of the goose".

As you know, Ludo is played by from 2 to 4 players who choose different colours (green, yellow, blue or red) and place 4 counters of their colour in the corresponding starting circle. A single die is thrown to determine movements, moreover, if a counter lands on a chip of a different colour, the chip jumped upon is returned to its starting circle.

However, even this gobalized game continues changing, some people roll 2 dice instead of 1 and they combine their scores as they want: adding them for moving one chip; or moving two chips, each of them with the amount determined by one die.

2. TYPES

2.1. Gambling This term refers to the games played at the Casino which involve money. They usually employ chips to represent money. For instance: Roulette; Bingo; and Poker. In this games there is usually a best prize named Jackpot. Nowadays, it is incresing the online sports betting with specific machines that you can find in the cafeteries and pubs.

2.2. Jigsaw It means a game that requires a great intellectual effort to resolve. They are mental challenges as the Rubik Cube or the bad called Celtic Games because they don't have that origin. I have one of these: you must build a three-dimensional cross with 6 basic wooden pieces.

2.3. Card Games There are different packs of cards, but the widely employed are French and Spanish ones. In England they use the French pack, a pack of 52 cards with 4 suits: hearts; diamonds; clubs; and spades.Before playing, cards are shuffled, cut and dealt. For playing some games you have two extra cards, the jokes.

2.4. Role Games A role-playing game (RPG) is a game in which each participant assumes the role of a character, usually in a fantasy or science fiction setting. Then, they interact within the game's imaginary world.

2.5. Chess and Draughts They are played by two people over a chessboard with 64 squares and rivals take it in turns, one get black pieces and the other white ones.For playing chess you must know how to move the pieces: pawn; bishop; knight; rook; queen; and king. The goal is to do checkmate or kill the opponent's king.The goal of draughts (checkers in American English) is to take every rival's pieces.

2.6. Table Sports Billiards, table football and table tennis are played all over the world. The last one is an Olimpic sport. Some people don't consider them as board games but they have been an important part of my leisure so I have included them.

2.7. Puzzels In this game the goal is to join pieces and get an image. They are usually advisable for a range of ages and it can consist of different amounts of pieces, for example a 500-piece puzzle. There are a very diverse amount of them at the toystore.

2.8. Dice Games The elements that you need for playing are dice which can have different shapes and faces. The basic one is a cube the faces of which are composed of one to six points and you can play a lot of games with them.You can play also with poker dice. There is one, particularly, that I really like because it made me remmember childhood. The game is "Max and Jacks" and it was invented in Zambia and Zimbawe in the 80´s. Then, British took that game to England where, I think, they continue playing in pubs.

In this game, you roll five dice, then decide what of the rows you want to fill. You roll again the dice you don`t like and you will get a score, for instance 4Jacks=4 times 3=12. After each player has filled his/her line, they get Total scores and the highest wins.

2.9. Tic tac toe (US) / Noughts and Crosses (UK) Everybody has played it when young and, I guess all of you have played it in class without paying attention to what the teacher was saying, Don't you?You have also an extended variant called Connect Four in which the goal is to place four chips in line into a bigger structure than the needed for playing Noughts and Crosses.

Another variant that I have invented by myself: you win even if your chips form a circunference arc. After placing all your chips without finishing the

game you only can move one of them to a close and free place. I name this 2-player game "Noughts and Dots" because chips' look.

2-player game. Red and green take turns to get a 3-piece line

Blanco Arias, FAUSTOJune, 2016