Tom 16 (2022): Zeszyt 2 (October 2022)

This paper deals with three historical large chess variants, Hyderabad Decimal Chess from late 18th century India and the 19th century German games Kaiserspiel (or Emperor's Game, played on a 10×10 board) and Sultanspiel (Sultan's game, 11×11), and their treatment in the literature. For each game, a set of rules is suggested and discussed.

This paper adopts a cultural biography perspective in examining some of the different ways board games are portrayed in the movies. It outlines the evidence base presented in appendices 1 and 2 and running to some 300 films. It identifies some of the shared linkages between board games, digital games and films and explores in more detail the role of dice, the way games shape and define character, place and time and how games help to define the past and the future.

India has a very prominent traditional board game culture, which is evident through numerous game boards and game pieces that are surviving. The spectrum of game board variations documented displays its association with the rich culture of crafts in India. Apart from these sets, there are ample examples of game board graffiti's present in various public spaces, temples being one of the most prominent of them. Many scholars, just to name a few, I. Finkel, R.K Bhattacharya, and L.K. Soni (published in 2011); Vasantha (2003); Fritz and Gibson (2007); Rogersdotter (2015), have documented and/or commented on these appearances of game boards in spaces. Most of these documentations are from the region of Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh. There are game board surveys from the states of Punjab (Gupta, 1926), Gujarat (Soni and Bagchi, 2011), Marwad (Samanta, 2011), Haryana (Sinha and Bishwas, 2011). Nevertheless, for some reason, there is very little work on board games in the state of Maharashtra. Though the literary documentation of sedentary games of Maharashtra is found in a book by ‘Anant Babaji Deodhar’ named ‘Marāṭhī Khēḷān̄cē Pustaka’ published in 1905; which mainly is anthropological documentation. It does not touch upon the references of this game information.

Sāripata (chausar), pat Songtyā (asta chima) existed in the Marathi household until the earlier generation (Pre WWII) in form of cloth boards and wooden pieces. However, it does not show its appearance as game board graffiti's in spaces in the post-Yadav period (14th century). Few games like mancala, Indian hunt games do show their presence in graffitis but seldom in literature. Literary pieces of evidence of regional literature remain untraced. No specific research has happened in literature in this era in the context to board games and thus the paper tries to throw light on evidence of board game mentions in medieval Marathi language literature. During the same time, the game board graffiti's shows its existence in Karnataka, Rajasthan until the 17th century. So what happened to the board game culture in Maharashtra? Where did the games go? Did it acquire a different form?

The paper tries to inquire about the presence/absence of board games in the 13th - 17th century Marathi literature and architecture.

Board games have been mainly used in school in order to develop students’ cognitive skills such as recognizing oneself intellectual potential, developing different and original strategies in confronting problems, developing quick thinking and decision-making skills, and using reasoning and logic correctly and effectively. However, detailed guidance about how the teacher could manage the game-playing process and about how it will play a role in helping students achieve the targeted skills has not been provided in the studies on games, the curriculum, or the game guides. In this study, a framework for the teacher in managing the process of playing board games is proposed. This framework is based on the Theory of Didactical Situations and has been developed in the context of strategic board games that are mostly played against an opponent on a board and do not involve luck. Pentago was used to illustrate the proposed framework. At the end of the study, the use of this framework for other board games is also discussed.