Board Games in Academia

By Alex de Voogt

After a splendid welcome in the building of the Leiden University Funds an intensive three and a half day lecture series awaited the participants.
Speakers on the first day discussed a variety of subjects, most of them related to the game of chess. Prof. Bauer, from the Institute of Play Research and Play Pedagogy in Salzburg, presented an interesting lecture about general play research at his institute. He was followed by International Grandmaster Yuri Averbakh, associated with Russian Chess Museum, who presented his findings on hunt games.
Dr Bhatta from India and Dr Bock-Raming from Germany showed their insight in Sanskrit studies by providing new data on chess history and other Indian board games. While Grandmaster of Shogi, Hiroyuki Iida in collaboration with Hitoshi Matsubara presented a new approach in computer science by trying to generate inventive moves. These topics in conjunction with a lecture on computer science and chess by Dennis Breuker and Dr Uiterwijk from Maastricht, ensured that the first day was not only informative and diverse, but also international and inspiring. During the tea break, Grandmaster Iida showed his ability in shogi by playing an informal game of blind shogi, i.e. with his back to the board, against the best Dutch shogi player, Dr Grimbergen.
This was the day on which chess historians like Dr Calvo, Mr Eder, Dr Thomsen, Mr Averbakh and many others came into contact with computer scientists for the first time and vice versa. Their relaxed participation and general interest in the variety of disciplinary perspectives promised an excellent continuation of the colloquium.
The second day, Dr Eagle introduced the audience to the field of manqala games, i.e. games played with holes and seeds. He presented the first account of manqala games in China and, although previously unknown in the field of games research, immediately made a name as an excellent speaker and knowledgeable scholar. The day continued with speculations about the origins of manqala by Chris van de Riet and two more lectures on computer science. This time invented games were introduced by Ir Anneke Treep and Dr Allis, who informed us about the state of the art in computer games research, reviewed a host of solved, cracked, and impossible-to-solve games. Dr Allis has been involved in programming Awari, the first manqala game to be played by computer.
The day concluded with the playing of Bao. Master Abdulrahim M. Foum from Zanzibar, Tanzania, gave the first international performance of blind Bao, the most complicated manqala game so far. With his back to the board and his actions explained to the audience by various Dutch players using boards in the lecture room, he made several attempts to play a game of Bao. Finally, he managed to play forty goes of Bao, an impressive performance indeed, since, unlike chess, the number of position changes per move are very high. Another varied day of scholarly presentations and tuition by various players of the game concluded in a relaxed atmosphere.
That evening a colloquium dinner with music and Indonesian food answered the very purpose of our gathering, namely coming into contact with other researchers in different fields. The next day we moved from Room 15 in the historic Het Gravensteen to a more up-to-date venue in the modern complex of the Faculty of Arts.

Ancient board games
The lectures on Wednesday focused on ancient board games. There were no ripples of astonishment when the day was started by Mr Spreer who speculated on the rules of the Royal Game of Ur and an archaeologist, Dr Schädler, who presented slides and data about backgammon variations in ancient Roman times. Dr Finkel, organizer of the previous colloquium on ancient board games in London, presented findings in his field of expertise, Assyriology, and rebutted many of the speculations adduced by Mr Spreer. Prof van Binsbergen gave his views on divination and board games, using his own expertise as a diviner and as a long-time researcher in Africa, he alluded briefly to the origins of manqala games.
During the teabreak, Natalya Ivanova showed slides of the Russian Chess Museum, and earlier Dr Calvo had squeezed in a short talk about mathematics and board games. After special Pachisi and Checkers cake during the break, Ian Riddler talked about his archaeological findings on Anglo-Norman chess, followed by Manfred Eder who speculated on the origins of chess and game pieces.
This intensive day of lectures was rounded off by some music in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, accompanied by some scholars of the IIAS, we attended a piano recital by Wibi Soerjadi. Tired but inspired, there were only two lectures left on the next morning. Dr Seidel and Luc Reurich presented their philosophical theories, connecting computer science and history, speculation and archaeology, scholar and friend. A farewell lunch in the IIAS building concluded a most rewarding experience for all present, all of us coming to the general conclusion that we had learned a lot. Having found a contemporary platform for publishing board game research, the next colloquium (perhaps in Florence, perhaps in India) will certainly attempt to start a journal on board game research and keep this family together.

Alex de Voogt is the editor of IIAS Working Papers Series 3, New Approaches to Board Games Research. Asian Origins and Future Perspectives (forthcoming, Leiden, August '95)