The Tricksters
Trojan Chess?
Royalty, politics, sports, power (stay in or get it), be the winner. People plot intrigues or cheat to achieve their goals and get what they want. Not only people, because science has found numerous examples of tricking or play-acting in the animal world, especially among birds and primates. So it's a universal behaviour pattern.
So how about this little intrigue/cheat: pawnish, lowly "Man, Don't Get Angry" (MDGA) game pieces, entering the royal playing field of the noblest games of all, ready to silently take over the place of the true king, queen, and their acolytes. Man, will they be angry once they realise what just happened. Will they? I'd say, "Power to the People" and game on ;) It's the season of the Pawns. Maybe this is also just another variant of suicide chess (in German, it's Räuberschach, "robbers' chess"), the only chess I ever played successfully.
I was ready to skip. I'm not a huge fan of board games, although I always quite enjoyed Scrabble, Monopoly, and Trivial Pursuit. And of course, we played "Mensch ärgere Dich nicht" (MDGA, which was inspired by Ludo and Pachisi) and a game called Malefiz (another descendant of Pachisi) when I was little. "I don't like board games" also means that there are none at home. Other than the very basic compendium of games I bought (you guessed it) for our last "game pieces" theme. It comes with three puzzle-like cardboard game board pieces (one sticks them together like puzzle pieces to get the whole game board – a simplistic game in itself, if you like). One side has a chess board print (used as background), the other the classic MDGA design, and game pieces for the latter and also for checkers. And chess pieces? There are none, which is a bit of a bummer.
None of the components is special in any way, which made me think of either skipping or buying a board game with interesting game pieces (a stupid idea). But then I remembered my old, truly vintage travel/pocket chess. It's a "De La Rue & Cos. Improved Pocket Chess Board With Chess Men Complete". It's foldable like a book, made of very sturdy cardboard, and the game board part has slots under each square where you can put in the cardboard "chess men" for each move. I thought I'd hide the wooden game pieces behind the cardboard chess pieces of the vintage pocket chess: "Trojan horse style". Theme participation ensured, money saved :)
Size info: The wooden MDGA pieces are 2,5 cm/0,98 inches tall, and the entire scene has a width of 6,5 cm/2,55 inches.
HMM, Everyone!
The Tricksters
Trojan Chess?
Royalty, politics, sports, power (stay in or get it), be the winner. People plot intrigues or cheat to achieve their goals and get what they want. Not only people, because science has found numerous examples of tricking or play-acting in the animal world, especially among birds and primates. So it's a universal behaviour pattern.
So how about this little intrigue/cheat: pawnish, lowly "Man, Don't Get Angry" (MDGA) game pieces, entering the royal playing field of the noblest games of all, ready to silently take over the place of the true king, queen, and their acolytes. Man, will they be angry once they realise what just happened. Will they? I'd say, "Power to the People" and game on ;) It's the season of the Pawns. Maybe this is also just another variant of suicide chess (in German, it's Räuberschach, "robbers' chess"), the only chess I ever played successfully.
I was ready to skip. I'm not a huge fan of board games, although I always quite enjoyed Scrabble, Monopoly, and Trivial Pursuit. And of course, we played "Mensch ärgere Dich nicht" (MDGA, which was inspired by Ludo and Pachisi) and a game called Malefiz (another descendant of Pachisi) when I was little. "I don't like board games" also means that there are none at home. Other than the very basic compendium of games I bought (you guessed it) for our last "game pieces" theme. It comes with three puzzle-like cardboard game board pieces (one sticks them together like puzzle pieces to get the whole game board – a simplistic game in itself, if you like). One side has a chess board print (used as background), the other the classic MDGA design, and game pieces for the latter and also for checkers. And chess pieces? There are none, which is a bit of a bummer.
None of the components is special in any way, which made me think of either skipping or buying a board game with interesting game pieces (a stupid idea). But then I remembered my old, truly vintage travel/pocket chess. It's a "De La Rue & Cos. Improved Pocket Chess Board With Chess Men Complete". It's foldable like a book, made of very sturdy cardboard, and the game board part has slots under each square where you can put in the cardboard "chess men" for each move. I thought I'd hide the wooden game pieces behind the cardboard chess pieces of the vintage pocket chess: "Trojan horse style". Theme participation ensured, money saved :)
Size info: The wooden MDGA pieces are 2,5 cm/0,98 inches tall, and the entire scene has a width of 6,5 cm/2,55 inches.
HMM, Everyone!