1. Get - ACQUIRE
2. Bad touch - A TOUCH OF EVIL
3. Hooks and crooks - BY HOOK OR BY CROOK
4. Manic Channel - CANAL MANIA
5. Chikinchachacha - CHICKEN CHA CHA CHA
6. Cause of the Universe - COSMIC ENCOUNTER
7. Drop: Dark Tour - DESCENT: JOURNEYS IN THE DARK
8. Banihamu the needs of the Devil - DEVIL BUNNY NEEDS A HAM
9. Foreign - DIPLOMACY
10. Town dying - DICE TOWN
11. Control: conspiracy - DOMINION: INTRIGUE
12. Erugurande - EL GRANDE
13. Social - HIGH SOCIETY
14. Hyundai - MODERN ART
15. Mutation: Castle Siege - MUTANT CHRONICLES: SIEGE OF THE CITADEL
16. The plot of the Queen - QUEEN'S GAMBIT
17. Gyarakushiresu - RACE FOR THE GALAXY
18. Role, through the Middle Ages - ROLL THROUGH THE AGES
19. Snow Fairy - SNOW TAILS
20. Warning capacity - SPACE ALERT
21. Neolithic - STONE AGE
22. Iron flow - TIDE OF IRON
23. The Night of Power - TWILIGHT IMPERIUM
24. Crucible - WITCH OF SALEM
25. Bet wisdom - WITS AND WAGERS

If there were two favorites in the tournament, they were likely Viswanathan Anand, who is not only the World Champion but is also known as a tremendous rapid and blitz player, and Magnus Carlsen, who has been playing extremely well as of late. The two players were in the lead from start to finish, with Anand holding a two point lead after the first day. However, it was Carlsen who ended up on top, finishing clear first with a 31/42 score -- three points ahead of Anand, who finished in second.

Carlsen won the event on the back of an impressive 28 wins, drawing just six games and losing eight. Conversely, Anand actually lost fewer games -- only six -- but also drew 16. Carlsen also pulled away by dominating the other leaders; he won both games against Anand, as well as against third place finisher Sergey Karjakin (25/42) and Vladimir Kramnik, who finished fourth (24.5). The tournament was competitive throughout the field, with even Alexandra Kosteniuk (last place, 12.5) scoring wins against both Carlsen and Anand.

Of course, blitz tournaments don't mean much in the grand scheme of things. Still, this is another notch in the hat for Carlsen, for whom 2009 has been a very good year. We'll soon see if he can top things off at the London Chess Classic in December, where he'll have a chance to finish the year with a tournament victory, and secure his #1 spot on the FIDE rating list.

Carlsen Blitzes Through Moscow originally appeared on About.com Chess on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 12:37:06.

Permalink | Comment | Email this

In Small World, players control a variety of races -- including dwarves, wizards, amazons, giants, orcs and humans -- as they attempt to earn points by conquering territories and maintaining control. It was named 2009 Game of the Year by Games magazine.

First Small World Expansions Now Available originally appeared on About.com Board / Card Games on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 05:33:31.

Permalink | Comment | Email this

For translation back-and-forth fun, http://translationparty.com/ is strangely addictive. You put in a phrase and it puts it back-and-forth into Google Translate to Japanese and back, until it "stabilizies."

I once put in a bunch of different quotes and created an "identify the original quotes" puzzle: http://onigame.livejournal.com/43395.html

1. Get
2. Bad touch
3. Hooks and crooks
4. Manic Channel
5. Chikinchachacha
6. Cause of the Universe
7. Drop: Dark Tour
8. Banihamu the needs of the Devil
9. Foreign
10. Town dying
11. Control: conspiracy
12. Erugurande
13. Social
14. Hyundai
15. Mutation: Castle Siege
16. The plot of the Queen
17. Gyarakushiresu
18. Role, through the Middle Ages
19. Snow Fairy
20. Warning capacity
21. Neolithic
22. Iron flow
23. The Night of Power
24. Crucible
25. Bet wisdom

Here's the clues:

• The answers are in alphabetical order.
• The really difficult one is NOT an obscure game.
• There is one game that is listed by the least common name out of multiple editions... sorry.
• The number of words is not necessarily equivalent to the number of words in the original game name.

I'll post the answers tomorrow in a separate thread. Good luck!

Hungry Wolves (Würfelwölfe)

• designer: Marco Teubner
• publisher: Haba
• date: 2009
• BoardGameGeek rank/rating: not ranked/7.50
• age: 5+
• # of players: 2-4
• print status: in print
• cost: $12.59 (maukilo.com)

• If a player rolls a dog, he says "Woof!" and moves his dog one space forward.
• If a player rolls a sheep, he says "Baa!" and does not move.
• If a player rolls a wolf, he runs around the table. (Or, if space is tight, he stands up & spins around.)

Players roll & do their various actions simultaneously... and as quickly as possible. There are no turns, per se... as fast as you can roll, make animal noises & do whatever you're supposed to do, you can roll again.

When one of the dogs catches up to another dog, the player yells "Stop!" and the round ends. The player who ended the round gets a sheep token and the game is reset for another round of controlled mayhem. The first player to get three sheep tokens wins the game.

It is as loud & crazy as you can imagine... and kids as young as 4 can easily join in the fun. What's unusual with Hungry Wolves is that it works as well with 2 players as it does with 3 or 4 - typically, raucous "run around the table" games don't work as well with smaller numbers of players.

As always, games like this come with the standard "don't play in a room full of collectible knickknacks or valuable electronics" warning. Of course, I think that's a feature, not a bug.

2009 World Scrabble Championships: Nov. 26-29 originally appeared on About.com Board / Card Games on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 05:33:41.

Permalink | Comment | Email this

The Vercors Campaign includes five new scenarios created by Jacques "jdrommel" David, highlighting the Maquisards of the French Resistance and their battle against SS forces on the Vercors Plateau in the summer of 1944. As with all Memoir '44 campaigns, victory is earned by winning multiple battles with the outcome of each scenario determining the circumstances of the next.

The Vercors Campaign will be available starting in December. Players will need a copy of the Memoir '44 base game, the Terrain Pack expansion (for some scenarios) and the Campaign Book: Volume 1 (for the campaign rules). The Air Pack expansion is recommended, but not required.

New Mini-Expansion for Memoir '44 originally appeared on About.com Board / Card Games on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 18:45:16.

Permalink | Comment | Email this

Dylan Lauren Designs New Edition of Candy Land originally appeared on About.com Board / Card Games on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 18:30:18.

Permalink | Comment | Email this

• designer: Robert Fraga
• publisher: Haba
• date: 2009
• BoardGameGeek rank/rating: not ranked/6.43
• age: 5+
• # of players: 2-4
• print status: in print
• cost: $8.99 (maukilo.com)

Greg Hager Memorial

Saturday, November 21

• SS; G/60. EF: $27, $17 to BCF members.
• Two sections: Open & U1800;
• Prizes: b/entries.
• Reg: 9:15 – 9:50.
• Rounds: 10, 12:40, 3:00, 5:10

More Children's Game Reviews:

• Hula Hippos
• Kayanak
• Children's Game Reviews - Index

^{Image courtesy of SimplyFun}

Pop Belly - Children's Game Review originally appeared on About.com Board / Card Games on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 05:33:21.

Permalink | Comment | Email this

To which David replies: "Oh yes, I know that game but all that was known at the time that game was played." He described the game in detail, practically cited the page the game was on. All of this from a player that doesn't play either side of a Giuoco!?

I play few 40/2 hr G/60 weekend tournaments anymore as they appear to be on the decline. I miss one interesting phenomenon that happens to those who toil all weekend within a slow time control tournament analyzing for hours at the board: by the last round of the tournament I am so much more lucid when compared to my state of mind when round one began. By late in a tournament, I can glance at a position and just know things that my typical rusty, mushy mind usually doesn't comprehend easily. A really cool experience. Two or three days of 8 to 10 hours per day of slow time control chess does wonders for my chess awareness and judgment. And when combined with the Swiss effect of you meeting players more and more equal to yourself as the tournament goes on, each game usually becomes a tougher and tougher, more fun, battle.

Being a chess weekend warrior, I dream of what it would be like to spend mountains of time with chess every day and have this incredible awareness all the time like IM's.

Folks like David Vigorito have such an all inclusive interest that they study games and openings even if very esoteric to their style, likes, and beliefs.

I would be a better player if I could afford to spend all my hours playing. But then I would need to find a hobby, maybe scrapbooking?!

I wonder what the likes of Larry Christiansen do for fun?

Please Comment

Thank You Mike Griffin

11/17/2009

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrapbooking

There was a fair amount of drama heading into the final round, as Ivanchuk and Viswananthan Anand each trailed Kramnik by just a half point, and Ivanchuk had White against Kramnik. Anand took himself out of contention by losing to Levon Aronian with the white pieces in just 25 moves. Ivanchuk managed to get an advantage against Kramnik, but couldn't find a way to convert it, leading to an agreed draw after 29 moves, and a tournament win for Kramnik.

The other big winner was Magnus Carlsen, who recovered from being sick earlier in the tournament to finish strong with two victories in the final two rounds (over Ruslan Ponomariov and Peter Leko). Before the tournament, it was believed that a +2 score by Carlsen would be enough to overtake Veselin Topalov (who did not play in Moscow) as the number one player in the world. Sure enough, the live rating list now has him .6 points ahead of Topalov; if these ratings hold until January, Carlsen would appear on the next FIDE list at 2806, and Topalov at 2805. However, Carlsen will be playing in London next month, so it remains to be seen who will top the first official ratings list of 2010.

Kramnik Tops Tal Memorial, Carlsen Leads FIDE Ratings originally appeared on About.com Chess on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 01:01:10.

Permalink | Comment | Email this

當局者迷旁觀者清

Stalemate, I can't move.

Aside from chess, Fischer came close to being a moron. I once thought his refusal to play chess on Saturday was because he was Jewish. No, it was because he had become a convert to the Worldwide Church of God, a strange sect founded by former Seventh-day Adventist Herbert W. Armstrong. Like the Adventists, Armstrong believed that Saturday is still the God-appointed Sabbath. In 1972 Bobby gave $61,000 to Armstrong, part of the prize money he had won by defeating Spassky.

It was November 15 1997 and I decided to get back into playing tournament chess. Lifetime boomers have a membership ID beginning with "1001": the USCF offered it to members in the 70's for those who opted to pay twice as much for 10 years in a sustaining membership to convert to Life. So after 19 years away, raising a family, I walked into the Third Annual BU Open.

Bob Oresick and Alan Ong were seated in the basement of the BU student union, paid my entry fee as I showed them my 1590 rating on the label of my Chess Life.

Bob and Allan were more occupied in encouraging players to assist in setting up tables and chairs. So an array of folding tables, folding chairs, and pieces of plywood were crafted by custodians and players assembling the hall. I found myself moving a table with a BU facilities man, Benjamin Theodore, whom I worked with for 11 years previously in a company that had subsequently closed. Benjamin made it a point to work during the BU Open for the next 10 consecutive years in order to say hi to me and make sure things were ok. He retired from BU two years ago.

.

Few coat racks available, we piled our coats and bags on the side of the room. The fact I was a class C prize winner that day fueled my enthusiasm; and so warmed by the prize money, the 30 degree weather made no impression as I took the T home; not noticing that I forgot my coat.

That day would begin the revitalization of my chess career, become an annual tradition, and begin a friendship with Bob. Subsequent BU Opens have moved upstairs into a glass walled, pre-furnished room, overlooking the Charles River surrounded by the colorful autumnal leaves. When combined with the nearby food court, ton's of space for skittles, each game has their own separate table to play on; the BU Open has evolved to one of the best places to play chess. Another feature is that local students are attracted by a low entry fee and team prizes, So you are not stuck in dealing with the typical cast of characters but have an opportunity to play unknown strangers.

From it's humble beginnings the BU Open has grown into a special day in the chess year.

Thank You Bob Oresick and Alan Ong.

What are some of your experiences at the BU Open?

Please Comment.

Mike Griffin 11/09/2009

Calls have been made for the pieces to be returned to Lewis

New research has cast doubt on traditional theories about the historic Lewis Chessmen.

The 93 pieces - currently split between museums in Edinburgh and London - were discovered on Lewis in 1831.

But the research suggests they may have been used in both chess and Hnefatafl - a similar game that was popular in medieval Scandinavia.

It also casts doubt on the traditional theory that the ivory pieces were lost or buried by a merchant.

The research was led by Dr David Caldwell of the National Museum of Scotland, who believes the Lewis chessmen were more likely to have belonged to a high-ranking person who lived on Lewis.

Dr Caldwell told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme that many of the pieces could have doubled for Hnefatafl, another conflict game which also pitted a king against pawns or warriors on the other side.

It is much more likely that the horde is in Lewis because it belonged to somebody who lived there rather than being abandoned by a merchant who was passing through Dr David Caldwell National Museum of Scotland

The ancient game has not survived into modern times.

For the first time, they also tried to work out which pieces were made by the same groups of craftsmen by measuring the chessmen's faces, looking at their clothing, and studying details of the workmanship.

Dr Caldwell added: "We certainly still believe the pieces are Scandinavian in origin, perhaps made in a workshop by several masters in a city like Trondheim.

"But one of the main things I think we are saying in our research is that it is much more likely that the horde is in Lewis because it belonged to somebody who lived there rather than being abandoned by a merchant who was passing through.

"To take a relatively easy example, there is a praise poem written in the middle of the 13th century to Angus Mor of Isla, and the poem says that he inherited his ivory chess pieces from his father Donald - that makes Angus the very first Macdonald, and the poem also makes him the king of Lewis.

"Now you of course you would be foolish to implicitly believe everything in a praise poem, but nevertheless it gives you some idea that we are dealing with a society in the west of Scotland - great leaders like Angus Mor, bishops, clan chiefs - who really valued playing chess and saw it as being one of their accomplishments."

He said that the analysis tried to recognise the work of different craftsmen, and home in on pieces which may be replacements for ones which had been broken or lost.

They used a forensic anthropologist, Caroline Wilkinson based at Dundee University, to do a photogrammetric analysis of the faces as they believed individual craftsmen would have given their faces different characteristics, just like a modern-day political cartoonists.

Plenty of mystery

Dr Caldwell said the chessmen suggested that there was a reasonable amount of wealth in the western Isles in the 13th century, perhaps because the medieval economy placed greater value on fairly barren land that could be used to raise cattle.

He added: "It was certainly leading men there, people who could make a lot of money either by raising cattle or frankly by going raiding - there was still in some ways a Viking way of life surviving into the 13th century."

Despite the extensive research, Dr Caldwell said he still believed there was plenty of mystery surrounding the chessmen.

"I would be very disappointed if we have written the last word on the - what I hope we have done is opened up the debate and shown it is possible, even with something very well known, to discover new things," he said.

The research will be published this week in the journal Medieval Archaeology.

Of the 93 pieces found, 82 are kept at the British Museum, with 11 held by the National Museum of Scotland.

Calls have been made for all of the pieces, which were made from walrus ivory and whales' teeth, to be returned to Lewis.

Instead, we started with two rounds that failed to produce a single decisive game! To be fair, there wasn't a problem with short draws; many of the early games were exciting games that ended with both sides picking up a half-point, not boring skirmishes where neither side had any interest in winning. Things have picked up a little since, but after four rounds, there have still only been four total wins in the tournament. Vladimir Kramnik currently has the lead with a score of 3/4, having scored wins over Morozevich and Svidler in the last two rounds. Anand and Aronian are each just a half-point back, with Anand also having scored a full point against Svidler in round three.

Another developing subplot: Carlsen entered the tournament with a reasonable chance of passing Topalov as the top-rated player in the world with a good result here (I believe he'd have to finish +2 to do so). However, Carlsen has fallen ill (he has a fever and a throat infection, which you can read about in Norwegian, or in English on ChessBase) and is taking antibiotics. He has started the tournament with four draws, so it remains to be seen if he'll be able to break through in the second half.

Kramnik Leads at Tal Memorial originally appeared on About.com Chess on Sunday, November 8th, 2009 at 23:24:29.

Permalink | Comment | Email this

This variation of the game includes a friendly robber, who can't attack a player with less than 3 victory points. The event cards replaces rolling the dice. Each player draws a card at the beginning of their turn. The harbormaster card is worth 2 victory points. The first player to win three harbor points wins the harbormaster card. Harbor points are obtained by placing settlements or cities at a harbor.

The Traders and Barbarians of Catan expansion pack also includes a method for playing The Settlers of Catan board game with two players. In this version, two dummy players are introduced for whom the actual players can build. They can also trade tokens with the dummy players. Tokens are a new resource introduced in this game.

There are five scenarios in the Catan Barbarians and Traders Expansion. The Fisherman of Catan can find fishing spots along the edges of the board where there are no harbors and in an inland lake. These fishing spots produce fish as a resource when their numbers are rolled. The fish are used much like other resources.

The Rivers of Catan has two rivers which run through the island. Building on the rivers produces gold, but building over them requires bridges. Bridges cost more than roads. The gold can be exchanged for resources.

In the Caravans scenario a new hex called the oasis is introduced. Three caravans start from the oasis and each player can vote on the direction of a caravan by using resources. You receive victory points when caravans cross your cities.

Barbarian Attack the scenario is similar to the Cities and Knights of Catan Expansion game, sort of an abbreviated version. Barbarians loot the edges of the island and knights are used to overcome them.

Traders and Barbarians has three hexes on the board than need certain commodities and players each have a wagon which he moves around the island to deliver these items from one hex to another. Roads have a great deal of strategic importance in this scenario, since they can speed up the progress of your wagon.

While not as cohesive as other Settlers of Catan Expansion Packs, the Traders and Barbarians Expansion Pack offers a lot of variety to the basic game and is a great way to spice it up. The various scenarios offer new ways to strategize and in particular, The Fisherman scenario offers an advantage to building cities and settlements along the coast which previously wasn't an advantage. This pack is a must have for fans of the Settlers of Catan. It will add a lot more interest and fun to your basic game experience.

The initial setup for this game is quite complex and somewhat time consuming. Each player starts with nine cards, 2 settlement, 1 road and 6 regions cards. The road goes in the center of each player's set up with settlements on each side and the settlements are surrounded by the regions cards, which are placed diagonally at the four corners. The six regions cards produce resources, ore, grain, wool, brick, timber and gold.

When the initial setup is completed the cards are divided into 10 piles. The development cards are sorted into road, city, settlement and region. Event cards create a fifth pile. The expansion deck is divided into 5 piles. Each player looks through one of the 5 piles of the expansion deck and chooses 3 cards to start. Now you're ready to start playing.

Each player rolls the dice, takes the actions they choose and ends their turn. The event die is the first to be rolled. The event die has five icons representing Tournament, commerce, brigand, year of plenty and event. In the tournament, each player totals his knights tournament points and the winner gets a resource. Commerce allows the player with the most commerce to take a resource from his opponent. Brigand means that any player with more than 7 unprotected resources loses all his ore and wool. The year of plenty allows each player to choose one resource and event allow the top card from the event deck to be played.

The production die is numbered and is played in much the same way as it is in the Settlers of Catan board game.

The card game has a bank. When you take actions, you can trade either with your opponent or the bank. You can develop by trading resources for roads, settlement and cities and you can expand your cities. The expansion cards can increase the resources of some regions and can also earn victory points. You can build garrisons which protect your resources against brigands.

At the end of each players turn they replenish their deck cards to 3. If you didn't play any cards during your turn, you may exchange one of your expansion cards.

While the set up and rules of the Settlers of Catan card game are somewhat complex, the game provides excellent entertainment and lots of ways to win. It depends heavily on strategy and very little on luck. The design of the game is attractive and high quality. You may have to play this a few times to get the hang of it and you'll need to keep the rule book handy for reference.

The greatest thing about the Settlers of Catan travel edition is the specially designed board.  As with the original game, the board is hex shaped.  In the travel edition the board is about 8 inches on each side and is made of hard plastic with hexagonal slots to hold the terrain tiles and triangles to hold the harbors.  Each slot has a raised number in the middle to mark the random terrains.  The hexagonal tiles have corresponding holes in the center.

The artwork isn't as pretty as the regular edition of Settlers, but the game is wonderfully portable.  The pieces will remain in place even if they are jostled about and the game is small enough to be easily portable.

The downside to the board is that the desert terrain tile only fits in the center of the board, which allows for less variety than the regular game, and you have to turn the game upside down to remove the tiles.

The pieces for the game, settlements, roads and cities are made of hard plastic and have pegs in the bottom to keep them stable on the board.  The robber doesn't have a peg, but should stay within the raised plastic of its terrain slot.

The cards look much like the regular game cards, only smaller.  The dice are hard white plastic with black pips.  There is also a 14 page rulebook that defines the rules clearly and has an almanac for good in game reference.  The book contains excellent pictures and examples and is very well done.

The travel edition comes in a box about 8 inches on each side and contains a tray to hold the cards.  The size of the box makes it wonderfully portable and the tray is another way in which the game's design for travel is successful.  There are slots for each type of card in the tray.  The slots allow enough space for you to be able to slip a finger in to remove a card or cards.

There are also slots to hold the pieces for each of 4 players and a center slot which holds the dice, reference cards and the board pieces which are used in the setup of the game.  The center slot can be used to roll the dice during play and the cards are held securely in a small space which is ideal for traveling.

The Settlers of Catan Travel Edition is everything a travel game should be.  It's size, the stability in the design and excellent features to keep pieces secure while playing, make it a hit with all the players who have tried it.

Russia, though, stumbled slightly in their final round encounter with Spain. While Alexander Morozevich scored a board two victory over Francisco Vallejo Pons, Evgeny Alexseev gave the point back to the Spaniards by losing to Ivan Salgado Lopez on the fourth board. The 2-2 draw opened the door for Azerbaijan to win outright by defeating the Netherlands.

The battle for third was also fierce, and was ultimately won by Ukraine, which scored a win over Israel in the final round to take the bronze medal on tiebreaks over Armenia.

In the Women's division, the battle for first between rivals Russia and Georgia came down to tiebreakers. In the end, the Russian women had two more board points than Georgia, which was enough to give them the gold. Georgia settled for second, while Ukraine nipped Azerbaijan for third on tiebreaks, far behind the leaders.

The tournament, held in Novi Sad, Serbia, attracted 38 Open and 28 Women's teams from across Europe. In the end, there were few surprises, but the event produced a great deal of exciting chess. Much like the European Championships in soccer (or football, for the Europeans reading this), which are second only to the World Cup in international competition, this event is likely the second biggest team competition on the chess schedule after the Olympiad. You can expect the top finishers here to figure prominently in the standings at the 2010 Chess Olympiad, scheduled for Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia.

Azerbaijan Takes Gold in European Team Championship originally appeared on About.com Chess on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 14:12:09.

Permalink | Comment | Email this

Reaction, not surprisingly, has been mixed. Some, like Russian GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, are strongly against taking away these titles, while Mig Greengard and others fall on the opposite side. Still others have made the point that the editorial's author, Barbara Jepson, is not a chess player herself, which may make her understanding of the issues involved less than ideal.

What is your take on women's chess titles? I honestly feel very ambivalent about them; while they do help promote strong female players who have yet to gain the equivalent "open" title (i.e., WGM vs. GM), they also lead to confusion, and can even promote the idea that lower standards are fine for woman, despite the fact that many women have proudly earned the GM and IM titles. As several other commentators have pointed out, though, women's tournaments are another issue entirely. While there shouldn't be too many of these events (I'm not sure anyone would like to see female players playing a schedule of tournaments that effectively keeps them separated from male players), these tournaments do help promote promising players, and from an early age give girls and young woman a more comfortable environment in which to develop their chess talent -- not to mention giving many girls more reasons to stay with chess, something I think most chess players would like to see.

Should Women's Chess Titles Stay or Go? originally appeared on About.com Chess on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 11:27:05.

Permalink | Comment | Email this