Ancient Strategy Games - The Brooklyn Strategist - Game Center, Cafe, Social Club - New York

These games range from the oldest known game to mankind (Senet/Royal Game of Ur) to one of the worlds most popular strategy games with origins dating back to the 6th Century (Chess). Ancient Strategy Games consist of what are considered to be some of the most “classic” games in history.

The Royal Game of Ur

This two-player strategy game uses the Ancient Baylonian UR game as its board (8x3 with 4 squares taken out to form a waist). The name, a reference to Senet, is misleading if not downright erroneous (the Ur board was used in the Ancient Egyptian game of Tjau). The object of the game is to prevent the opponent from having any moves by blocking and taking pieces.

Mancala

This is the progenitor of pit-and-pebble games. Play involves scooping up pebbles from a pit and sowing the pebbles, one at a time, into the other pits. These games were probably created in Africa hundreds (if not thousands) of years ago. A "standard" Mancala board is composed of six pits on each side of the board, and a larger scoring pit on each side. Two players sit across from each other over the board. The large scoring pit to each player's right is "her" scoring pit.

Dominos

A traditional tile game played in many different cultures around the world. In Western Dominoes; the standard set being the 28 "Double Six" tiles. Chinese Dominoes use a 32 tile set with different distributions. "Western style” dominos has a standard set of tiles is based on the 21 different combinations made with a roll of two six-sided dice. Seven (7) additional "Blank" combination tiles combine with the 21 to form the standard 28 "Double-Six" set. "Double-Nine" (with 55 tiles) and "Double-Twelve" (with 91 tiles) are also popular ("Double-Fifteen" sets also exist).

There are many different games played with Dominoes. The standard game is known as the Block game. Forms of this game are known in many different areas of the world with similar rules. Puerto Rican Dominoes, Latin Dominoes, and Cuban Dominoes are all forms of the Block game.

Another main variety of Dominoes games are based on the "Fives Family." Five-up, All Fives, Sniff, and Muggins are all part of this family. This variation adds the ends of the dominoes to make a multiple of five for scoring.

Other popular Dominoes games include 42 and Mexican Train.

Mah Jongg

Mah Jongg is a traditional Chinese game using illustrated tiles, with game play similarities to rummy.

The tiles consist of three suits numbering 1-9 (Dots, Numbers or Characters, and Bamboo, the "Ace" of which almost always looks like a bird), three different dragons (Red, Green, and White [white is unusual in that it may look like a silvery dragon, or like a picture frame, or blank - think "White dragon in a snowstorm"), and the four winds (east, south, west, and north). There are four copies of each tile. Special flower, season, and joker tiles may also be used.

Four players take turns drawing from a stock (the wall), or from the other players' discards, in an attempt to form sets of numeric sequences (e.g., 5-6-7 of the same suit, which can only be drawn from the player at one's left, by calling "Chow"), triplets and quadruplets (which can be drawn from the discards out-of-turn by calling "Pung"), pairs, and other patterns. "Pung" takes precedence over "Chow", and "Mah Jongg" (literally "I win!") takes precedence over all (and is the only situation one may draw "Chow" out-of-turn.) What happens if a single discard would give two (or more!) players "Mah Jongg"? Precedence goes to the player who would play next in normal sequence.

Originating in China in the mid-19th century, it was introduced to the U.S. in the 1920s. It is now played in different forms throughout Asia, Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand. Although the rules for game play are fairly constant, there are an immense variety of scoring schemes. A few general categories of rule-sets include: Chinese Classical, Hong Kong Old Style, Japanese, Taiwanese, Western, and American.

Chess

Chess is a two-player, abstract strategy board game that represents medieval warfare on an 8x8 board with alternating light and dark squares. Opposing pieces, traditionally designated White and Black, are initially lined up on either side. Each type of piece has a unique form of movement and capturing occurs when a piece, via its movement, occupies the square of an opposing piece. Players take turns moving one of their pieces in an attempt to capture, attack, defend, or develop their positions. Chess games can end in checkmate, resignation, or one of several types of draws. Chess is one of the most popular games in the world, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments. Between two highly skilled players, chess can be a beautiful thing to watch, and a game can provide great entertainment even for novices. There is also a large literature of books and periodicals about chess, typicially featuring games and commentary by chess masters.

The current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from a similar, much older game of Indian origin. The tradition of organized competitive chess began in the 16th century. The first official World Chess Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, claimed his title in 1886. The current World Champion is Viswanathan Anand. Chess is also a recognized sport of the International Olympic Committee.

We Qui (Go)

By all appearances, it's just two players taking turns laying stones on a 19×19 (or smaller) grid of intersections. But once its basic rules are understood, Go shows its staggering depth. One can see why many people say it's one of the most elegant brain-burning abstract games in history, with players trying to claim territory by walling off sections of the board and surrounding each other's stones. The game doesn't end until the board fills up, or, more often, when both players agree to end it, at which time whoever controls the most territory wins.