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3 years ago

Five board games you probably never heard of

The game, Go, is designed in rich categories with simple rules and regulations with a traditional, carved wooden board, with black and white stones made from slate and clamshell — Internet photo
The game, Go, is designed in rich categories with simple rules and regulations with a traditional, carved wooden board, with black and white stones made from slate and clamshell — Internet photo

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Video games have become people’s closest friends amid these prolonged lockdown phases and all other restrictions. With the home office and all the other staff that have made life stagnant inside one’s bedroom, some amazing board games can be the ultimate thing where one can resort to. Here are some interesting suggestions.

1. Go

Go is a Chinese-originated abstract strategy board game which is normally played on a 19x19 grid. The size can vary from 19x19 to 13x13 grid.

In the game, two players aim to surround more territory than the opponent. The game is designed in rich categories with simple rules and regulations with a traditional, carved wooden board, with black and white stones made from slate and clamshell.

Go is quite flexible and a battleground of sheer balance and patience. Famous people like Einstein, John Nash and Alan Turing played it in their pastimes.

A 2016 survey by the International Go Federation's 75 member nations revealed that there are over 46 million people worldwide who know how to play Go and from East Asia, more than 20 million people play Go.

2. Senet

Senet is one of the most ancient board games, approximately 5000-years-old. In the Egyptian language, senet means passing afternoon. This game is played between two people on elaborate carved and inlaid boards like Tutankhamun’s tomb. The most ancient version of the game was taken from a painting from the tomb of Hesy.

The game board has 30 squares grid and the board consists of two sets of pawns. There are three rows of ten squares set in a rectangle. A player has five pieces of contrasting patterns. The movements of the pieces are done by the throw of four split twigs with a dark face on one side and a light face on the other.

3. Mancala

Mancala is played with small stones, beans, seeds and rows of holes, a board or other playing surface. It is a two-player turn type family board game of strategies. The target is to capture all the opponents’ pieces.

It is a famous Turkish game from the 7th century and is widely played nowadays. Historians said that it was formed from a record-keeping technique and harvesting ritual with the dawn of civilisation.

Like an empty egg carton, the mancala board is made of six pits. 48 marbles or stones will be put in the holes. A turn consists of removing all seeds from a pit and sowing them. The aim of the game is to plant all the marbles in the holes. It sharpens a person’s strategic thinking and counting skills.

4. Backgammon

Backgammon was discovered in Mesopotamia 5,000 years ago. It is a two-person game of a twenty-four narrow triangles board. The triangles vary in colour and are sorted into four quadrants of six triangles.

The quadrants are pointed to as a player's home and outer board. Both of the boards are different from each other by a central line or bar. By moving pieces along the board's triangles and off the board before the opponent, a player can reach his or her objective.

Backgammon is played in rounds with a scoring system. Each round is its own game, with no point scoring involved. This wonderful game is a mix of luck and strategy because a player rolls dice in every turn.

5. 7 Wonders

Besides all the ancient games mentioned above, 7 Wonders is a strategy board game created by Antoine Bauza in 2010 and originally published in Belgium by Repos Production.

7 Wonders is a card drawing game that uses three decks of cards that represent ancient civilisations, military battles and business practices. The game is counted as one of the highest-rated and the most influential board games of the last decade.

In the game, a player is a leader of one of the 7 great cities of the Ancient World. The core objective is to gather resources, develop commercial roads and establish military supremacy.

Md. Zubayer Wasit is a student of economics at Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP).
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