Board Games

This exhibition explores Asia’s fundamental role in the development and refinement of games. It brings together some of Asia's most significant examples of boards, pieces, and other game playing paraphernalia from museums and private collections worldwide.

Java applets for Morris, Hnefetafl and Go-Muku.

A single establishment might well serve multiple functions. While a single building might serve as a church for the Glory of God and yet at the same time be a hospital to tend to the sick and injured, another multi-purpose establishment might be combination restaurant, bar, gambling den, and brothel. One such establishment has left a curious document, which details various games played and wagers placed within, during the later years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth the first. These games include Hazard, Basset, High Roll, Quilles, Shove-Groat, Landsquenet, Ranter Go Round, Poch (or Glic), Alquerque A Doz, Queek, and the Game of the Goose.

The Norse people delighted in games and sports. Both indoor board games and outdoor sporting competitions appear to have been regular leisure time activities. The saga literature and archaeological evidence support this view.

Games of the Middle Ages, specifical ly focusing on board games popular in the 13th and 14th centuries.

Alea Evangelii is an Anglo-Saxon variant of Hneftal and is believed by some to be the only board game played by the Anglo-Saxons.

This article is intended to show how easy it is to make a good looking wooden game board using only materials available from timber merchants, DIY and hardware stores.

Rules for a word-game devised to assist with the teaching of Latin. It is rather like the modern game Scrabble in some respects, but is more straightforward as regards scoring.

Dice and dice games, gaming pieces and board games (including hnefatafl, duodecim scripta, merels, halatafl, chess, and draughts), knucklebones, and riddles.

Senet is an Egyptian race game and may be the ancestor of our modern backgammon. Catherine Soubeyrand discusses the history and rules for playing the game.

Shogi is a Japanese board game played by two players. The object of the game is to capture the opponent's King. Shogi is played on a nine-by-nine board and each player has twenty pieces. Shogi is much like 'western' chess, but has some very interesting differences. One is that almost all pieces can promote to stronger pieces once they reach the opposite side of the board. The second very important difference is that when a piece is captured, it becomes a piece for the capturing side, and can be dropped back onto the board.

Short History of the game of Yut, or Nyout, from the 16th century. Discusses board shape, game rules, and symbolism of the game.

Dagonell the Juggler explains the rules of shove groat, a game that dates back to the Vikings.

Philip Stubbes started writing around 1581 producing small tracts in which he sharply denounced the manners, pastimes, fashions and culture in England. His major work, The Anatomie of Abuses, was first published in 1583.

P hilip Stubbes had a gift for keen observatio n. Although his comments should not be considered to reveal mainstream thought or opinions of the time, (even his contempora ries thought him extreme) his virulent attacks on the abuses in fashion and English society provide us with a detailed, colorful and picturesqu e glimpse into the England of Shakespear e's youth.