Board games as culture

November 4, 2011 9:49 AM

What countries have notable/unusual board game cultures?

What countries have either some game unique to that country--that occupies a central part of the culture--or a unique relation to a game played more universally (eg chess)?

posted by resiny to Society & Culture (29 answers total)

Germany gave us the idea of German-style board games.

Chess is very central to the Russian culture and identity and Preferans (a whist variant) was also a very big deal.
posted by griphus at 9:54 AM on November 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wired did a piece on German games a few years ago.
posted by Wretch729 at 9:56 AM on November 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

Backgammon appears to go back to 3000 BC in Persia, if Wikipedia is to be believed.

Mancala goes back to 6th of 7th century Ethiopia.
posted by Gilbert at 9:57 AM on November 4, 2011

Oh, and basically everyone in Russia learns to play Durak as a child.
posted by griphus at 9:58 AM on November 4, 2011

Go in Japan.
posted by Jahaza at 10:00 AM on November 4, 2011

Dominoes in Jamaica.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 10:03 AM on November 4, 2011

China and Mahjong
posted by Gilbert at 10:04 AM on November 4, 2011

I'd add Loteria for Mexico. The game is iconic - a mixture of Bingo and Tarot. Central to understanding mexican culture a bit more.
posted by vacapinta at 10:04 AM on November 4, 2011

Backgammon is much more widely played in Turkey and the middle east than in the US, although AFAIK without the use of the doubling die, or any gambling.

In the UK there's a limited and very specific set of "classic" boardgames that are widely played in childhood, and figure large in the popular imagination, but are perhaps not that commonly played in adulthood: Monopoly, Cluedo, Risk, Scrabble, Snakes and Ladders, Ludo.
posted by roofus at 10:06 AM on November 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

It's not quite a board game, but there are many card games that utilize the baraja, which is a Spanish deck of cards. Similarly, an alternate deck of cards is used for the Chinese game of tichu.
posted by jquinby at 10:09 AM on November 4, 2011

I live in a Russian/Chinese neighborhood and old Chinese dudes are always out in the park playing xiangqi next to the old Russian dudes playing chess.

And backgammon is really big with Israelis.

(Sorry to spam the thread)
posted by griphus at 10:13 AM on November 4, 2011

Chess is now a standard school subject in Azerbaijan and the Republic of Kalmykia, whose president also happens to be the president of FIDE. They also have Chess City.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 10:17 AM on November 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

Parchisi in India.
posted by Gilbert at 10:20 AM on November 4, 2011

There are few things so essentially Argentine, particularly for people of a certain age, than the board game TEG. I had endless hours of fun with my teenage friends over a TEG board, I can tell you.
posted by Iosephus at 10:21 AM on November 4, 2011

In Armenia chess is taught in schools and a number of grand masters are Armenian (including Garry Kasparov (aka Kasparyan)). PRI's The World did a story on this earlier this week.
posted by k8t at 10:27 AM on November 4, 2011

Turks and backgammon?
In Armenian you use Turkish numbers to count in backgammon AKA nardi.
posted by k8t at 10:27 AM on November 4, 2011

A bit of a meta-answer, but the card game Tichu has a completely made-up history/mythology around this idea.
posted by mkultra at 10:43 AM on November 4, 2011

Chess in India for sure.
Also carrom.
Those were two that were played regularly in school.
The older generation also played another game, that I'm forgetting the name. It involved a wooden structure with a number of small holes that contained some numbers of seeds or tiny shells. You counted in a particular way around the board and picked up seeds/shells after a particular number of counts. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
posted by peacheater at 11:04 AM on November 4, 2011

You could also make a case for senet, though no one is exactly sure what the rules were.
posted by jquinby at 11:10 AM on November 4, 2011

Ok what I remember playing was apparently a variant of mancala, though we definitely did not call it that -- this was in Tamil Nadu, in south India.
posted by peacheater at 11:14 AM on November 4, 2011

(OK - last one. I immediately though of Hesse's The Glass Bead Game when I read your question. Not sure if that's what's driving your question, but if any sort of fiction is allowed in the answers, it pretty much fits the bill 100%)
posted by jquinby at 11:17 AM on November 4, 2011

Yut.
posted by hmo at 1:08 PM on November 4, 2011

In the last decade, the United States gave us Ameritrash -- expensive board games in big boxes with lots of bits that (broadly speaking) emphasize theme over mechanical elegance.
posted by Sauce Trough at 1:49 PM on November 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

I've seen lots of people playing backgammon in cafes and other public spaces in Greece. I found it particularly surprising to see young people playing it pretty avidly: a young late-teens/early-20s couple playing together in silence, two teenage girls playing and chatting.
posted by dd42 at 2:18 PM on November 4, 2011

There's at least one TV channel in South Korea dedicated to Baduk, which is the Korean name for Go.

In Finland, the traditional family board game is Afrikan Tähti (African/Africa's Star).
posted by tykky at 3:47 PM on November 4, 2011

Crokinole in Canada. Also in Canada (Ontario especially?) many families have a "cottage", a very modest small vacation house a few hours away, usually in a rustic setting by a lake, often without electricity, and they'll often get out to the cottage at least a week or two each year, often more. So there's a thriving market for board games and jigsaw puzzles for families to have out at their cottage.
posted by LobsterMitten at 5:17 PM on November 4, 2011

Go in Japan

Also Shogi.
posted by liquidindian at 5:23 PM on November 4, 2011

Cambodia has its own peculiar version of chess that's played on a similar board with slightly different pieces and is apparently very hard. Wiki says it's Thai as well - Makruk, but I was told the rules are different, and that Ouk Chatrang is older. It's the only board game I've seen played regularly in Cambodia, and just about everyone over a certain age knows to play it. The boards and pieces are often a personal set carved by the player - you can buy standard touristy chess boards, but a proper Ouk Chatrang set is different and expensive.
posted by viggorlijah at 10:43 PM on November 4, 2011

I think there's an unwritten law in Ontario that every cottage has to have a Scrabble game. I think it's a common "house warming" gift when people buy their first cottage. Got have a nice wood Scrabble game. (And a cribbage board!)
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 9:14 AM on November 5, 2011