The History of Boardgame Tournaments

Chess, Monopoly, Scrabble, Checkers and other board games provide unlimited entertainment to the family. Enthusiasts worldwide spend time and resources honing their skills in particular board games. Worldwide competitions are held in nearly every country, and cash prizes tend to be quite large.

The rise and popularity of board games may be attributed to various information drives in many countries. The people who come together to enjoy this game would naturally preach about the beauty of it. Most would try to host tournaments and competitions to push people into playing games, often times offering prizes to winners. This naturally creates interest with the locals who try to master the game. Some would realize their natural talent in the game and rise to be renowned worldwide.

Unknown to many of us, luck has smiled on us in terms of the history of the board games. In the very early days, board games were only limited to royalty, and the local folks would just not have the time and resources to play them. Recorded history tells us that one of the very first recorded board games created was the game of Mancala. Mancala is a game of sowing stones or anything small that would replicate small objects in holes. The game was believed to have started as early as 5870 BC. However, the documented game of Senet can also be found in Egyptian Burials as early as 3500 BC. The game was carefully depicted on Egyptian tombs. This tomb shows the actual playing of the game by Egyptian royalty. However, the actual rules and instructions of playing that game is still not clear. On the other hand, the very first list released to the public was made by the revered Gautama Buddha. The list contains the number of games the Buddha itself would not play.

It was only during the 20th century that board games came to be known for the local people, even if games were invented thousands of years ago. The main reason why people came to be interested to various board games is economical. 20th century marks the rise of the middle class. These middle class clusters of people have more time and resources, and thus would look for alternative ways to occupy their free time. After World War II, the audience even got bigger for board games and people became more interested to these activities.

The worldwide following of board games is ever increasing. Internet and computers have paved the way for players to challenge each other online. There are also games were people can go and compete against the artificial intelligence of the computer. These software programs and internet pages are used by various players worldwide to hone their skills when they come to a physical board and play against a human opponent. Even though most of the great players nowadays have not experienced the training of software and the internet, there is a popular rise of players who were known to be skillful by means of their popularity online. Their results in the actual competitions show the validity of their skills improved by online training.

You might also be interested in these articles:

• Collecting Board Games
• Starting a Board Game Collection
• History of Board Games
• Economics and the History of Board Games
• Board Game Tournaments in History
• Benefits of Board Games