

Players must move their color pegs across the game board before their opponents to win. Read on to learn more about Chinese Checkers’ strategies. Jumping is one of the most significant strategies for winning the game. (It is available for a one-hour loan from the Internet Archive.) For fans of Abstract Strategy games, many of the games he writes about which have sadly fallen out of historical favor are well worth reviving. Chinese Checkers is an abstract strategy board game. Developed in Germany around 1880, Chinese Checkers was derived from a European game called Halma, meaning jump. His chapter on Tangram, a ‘game’ the author describes as a puzzle, is equally, well, puzzling.īotermans’ The Book of Games is well worth hunting down. My one criticism of the book is with its strong emphasis on board games, I don’t understand his decision to include games of chance such as Craps and Poker.
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His lengthy chapters on Go, Shogi, and Rithmomachia not only provide a fine overview of these complex games, but will leave the reader with more than just a basic idea of how to play them. You need only read through some chapters devoted to commonly known games- Checkers, Snakes and Ladders, and Chinese Checkers, for example-to get an appreciation for the detail and the seriousness that Botermans takes in his analyses. In this section, game play is divided into logical phases with separate blocks of text devoted to Strategy Tips, Curious Facts, and Variations interspersed within the text.
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Windmill (Nine Men’s Morris) opening pageīotermans then provides an idea of what your first full game might look like. An oversized, coffee table-style book, this is a richly illustrated history that draws on vintage game boards, box art, clear examples of gameplay, old photographs, paintings, and drawings to bring the games to life.Įach of the 50 games covered is given a brief history, followed by the rules of the game. Jack Botermans’ The Book of Games: Strategy, Tactics & History (Sterling Publishing, 2008) does all of this and more. Rarer still are books that do justice to the depth of game play behind these classic games. At best, some will have hand-drawn diagrams giving the reader an idea of the board and pieces. What I have found, though, is that most of these books are older titles that are heavy on words and sparse on illustrations. An extensive review of familiar and forgotten games in world history.Īs a board game fan and a voracious reader, I have read many books about the history of board games.
