Media: Board games

At long last.

Mahjong/Mah-jong/Mahjongg/what have you

Known as 'pinyin' (sparrow) in many parts of Asia, the Mahjong which this article concerns is not this Mahjong.

The original played more like various card games.

It was traditionally played using 136 tiles, however, modern variants tend to give it an even 144.

Mahjong originated around 500 BC, mentioned and possibly even invented by Confucius.

Rules, blah blah, yadda yadda, traditional rules, snore bump ouch.

Chess

The first form of chess that closely resembled our modern one was probably made in the 6th century AD.

An infamous anecdote (the details of which I cannot quite remember) runs as follows: guy X does deed Y. King Z wants to give him a reward, and asks him what he wants. He asks for 1 grain of wheat on one square of a chessboard, two on the second, four on the third, eight on the fourth, and so forth up to 2^63 on the last. The king is surprised at this and asks whether that is truly all he wants. The guy says, and I paraphrase: "The amount of grain which I am asking of you would be enough to cover the entire surface of the Earth in a layer an inch deep".

The first modern chess tournament was held in 1851, and won by Adolf Anderssen. Hitlerhitlerhitlerhitler

In 1912, 'Il Ajedricista', 'The Chess Player', was built by Leanardo Torres y Quevedo. It was an electromagnet-controlled automaton which would play out an endgame with a human player.

Ernst Zermelo used chess as one of the first predecessors for modern game theory in 1913.

The first chess-playing computers were built in the 1950s during the advent of the modern computer, and the first tournament for AI chess (pitting two computers against each other) was held in 1970.

Nice job, Newton.

Go/Igo

Go existed in China at least as early as 300 BC.

The 'original' Japanese name, Igo, roughly means 'board game of surrounding'. Technically the name used to be Weiqi before that, but it arrived in the West via Japan and so adopted their name for it.

The game is played using white and black stones which would be used to surround those of your opponent and 'capture' them.

It is played on a 19*19 grid, with some games lasting 16 hours and over.

The International Go Federation has 40 million members from 71 countries in all continents, but the majority of players are situated in Asia.

Shogi

Shogi is a 9*9 chess variant, the modern form of which only came about around the 15th century AD.

Shogi is played using pieces mostly similar to those of a chess set, however not containing a queen, and adding a lance, a gold general and silver general, plus some promotions.

The promotion system of shogi works somewhat differently to that of chess, with different promotions for every unit except promoted units and the king.

'Capturing' is taken literally: one can use enemy pieces that one has captured on his or her own side.

Taikyoku shogi

Taikyoku shogi is a particular variant which is different in its size.

At 36*36 squares, this is the largest known board game of any kind.

There are over 200 unique pieces, each with their own promotion chain, etc.. Multiple kings were possible.

This variation was played by priests at around the same time'regular' shogi came about.

Our 'regular' shogi was in a class known then as 'small shogi', by way of comparison to variants such as these.

The name says it all: it means 'ultimate shogi'.