Board Games
Games
 In Early America these games helped
children learn skills that they would need
later in life as a farmers and parents.
Games taught children how to aim and
throw, how to solve problems and do things
with their hands, and how to follow
directions and rules. They also leaned to be
fair, to wait their turn and to use their
imaginations.
Board Games
 Some of the board games that settlers
played had been around for centuries.
Chess, Checkers, and backgammon are
examples of old favorites, but many new
games were also created in the 1800’s.
Some helped players learn about history,
geography, and science. Others taught
children the value of working hard and
behaving well.
Pick Up Sticks (jack Straws)
 Pick- Up Sticks, also known as
Jackstraws, Jackstraws, Spilikins or
Woodpile, is a popular game of skill
played by both children and adults,
with long round sticks or straws of
wood. Jackstraws, the game’s most
immediate predecessor was
particularly popular during the
colonial period in America.
Jackstraws were originally made of
ivory or bone. Later, when the game
became a favorite among colonial
children, they were made of wood.
In the 20th Century, the ‘sticks’ were
rounded for ease of use and
Jackstraws became the game we now
know as Pick Up Sticks.
One, Two, Buckle my shoe…
 The name pick-up sticks may have come
from this children's nursery rhyme: One,
two, buckle my shoe,
Three, four, shut the door,
Five, six, pick up sticks,
Seven, eight, lay them straight,
Nine, ten, a big fat hen."
Instructions for Pick-Up Sticks
 To begin the game, the first player drops the sticks
in a pile. The first player then begins to “pick-up”
the sticks one at a time without disturbing any
other sticks. When one of the surrounding sticks
is disturbed, the play passes to the next player and
so on until the play returns to the starting player.
 The winner is declared by having the most number
of sticks. Or the alternative method is to use the
coloring to denote a point system.
Noughts and Crosses
 Tic Tac Toe was originally
known as Noughts and Crosses
and has been played in the
United Kingdom for centuries.
The same playing grid used for
this game was also found etched
into surfaces throughout the
ancient Roman Empire, proving
its popularity. Even though no
playing pieces have been found
that confirm this was the same
game, the Roman game Terri
Lapilli is thought to be an
identical game.
To Play Tic Tac Toe
 Tic Tac Toe is played with two players that
take turns placing their chosen piece (a
Naught "o" or a Cross "x") on the game
board, which is a 3-inch by 3-inch grid. The
first player to complete a row either
horizontally, vertically, or diagonally is the
winner.
Dominoes
 The Inuit game of "Á ma
zú a lát" is similar to the
game of dominoes. The
Eskimo name for dominoes
means "standing upright
side by side." The
European game of
dominoes seems to have
been borrowed from the
Chinese, but only the math
elements were retained.
Dominoes origins China
 Dominoes may have originally been used as
counters in dice games or in a method of
fortune telling with dice. In the year 1120
A.D., the dominoes we know today existed
in China and it is believed that dominoes
descended from dice around this time.
Popularity of Dominoes
 The game of dominoes was a popular game
during Colonial American times and
continues to be a favorite American game.
Dominoes are as popular with adults as they
are with children. Many Irish pubs feature
domino games and sponsor domino
contests.
Dice
 Playing with dice dates back to ancient
Greece and Rome. Dice are commonly
associated with gambling but there are
many other games that can be played for
fun. Names for the forerunners of dice
games were Astragali and knucklebones.
A game of this type is depicted in a 3rdcentury B.C. Roman sculpture featuring
two girls close to the ground, one of
them in the position to roll. Astragali are
the knucklebones of a goat. Other
knucklebones are the dried ankle bones
of sheep and have four different sides,
flat, concave, convex, and one sinuous
or curvy side. The name "k'ab" is the
Arabic word for "knucklebone" and
"die." The game of jacks is also known
as "knucklebones" because sheep bones
were used to play a game which was the
forerunner of jacks.
Colonial Dice Playing
 Colonial American children played with dice and
wealthy families would have had ivory dice, while the
"common folk" would have used wooden dice. Dice
have been made of bone, antler, ivory, horn, wood and,
later during the American Revolutionary War, soldiers
made dice out of lead bullets and played dice games to
pass the time.
 As with playing cards, dice had gambling issues that
caused prohibitions and ordinances to be passed. In 1364
in St. Gallen Switzerland, an ordinance forbade dice
games, allowed board games, but did not mention
playing cards. In 1382 in Lille, France, an ordinance
forbade various games, including dice and "quartes" (an
early word for cards). In the same year in Barcelona,
Spain, an ordinance prohibited dice and cards in just one
home of a certain town official. Fifteen years later in
Paris, France, a decree was issued forbidding working
people to play dice and other gambling-type games on
working days.
Cup and Dice
 Many dice games made use of a
cup to shake the dice in, rather
than in a hand. It seems that this
method kept some players from
"palming" loaded dice. Loaded
dice are dice that have been
tampered with to cause a
predictable outcome. The
"shaker cup" supposedly made
dice playing a fair game. The
dice could, however, still be
"loaded" by a skilled cheat.
Hazard (Dice Game)
 Two dice are needed for this game. The player who begins
the game is called the ‘caster.’ If the caster rolls a 2,3, or
12 on the first roll, the turn passes to the left. If, on the
other hand, the first roll is a 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, or 11, the
caster continues to roll the dice until he either:
Rolls the same number as the first roll
Rolls a 7 and, in doing so loses his turn to
the player to the left.
The Game continues in this manner until all players have had
a chance to be the caster. The winner is the player who has
won the most rounds.
Dice Continued
 When playing dice-like games, values were given
to each side of the knucklebones. The bones were
tossed into the air and a player tried to have them
land on the back of the hand or on the ground.
Points were determined and scores kept.
Eventually, six-sided cubed dice replaced the
bones. A cube-shaped dotted die dated 600 B.C.
from the Greek colony of Naucratis, Egypt, was
discovered by Flinders Petrie.
Beetle (Dice Game)
 This game requires two dice, paper
and pencil. Each player selects a
number between one and six and
writes it on top of his piece of paper.
Each player in turn then throws the
dice once. If he rolls the number
previously selected, he may draw a
section of the beetle on his paper. If
he rolls a double of his selected
number, he takes an additional turn.
(First, draw the head, then the body,
the eyes, the feelers and then the six
legs one at a time.) The Player to
get his number 12 times will have
finished the beetle and is the winner.
Solitaire
 Board Solitaire originated in
France, where it is said to have
been invented by an imprisoned
nobleman date unknown.
Introduced in England in the late
1700’s the game soon gained
worldwide popularity and
remains a classic game for one
player.
 The object of the game is to
remove all the playing pieces
from the board except one piece,
which is left in the center of the
board.
How to Play Solitaire
 Begin by placing all the playing pieces on
the game board except for the center space.
Remove playing pieces by jumping over
another piece into a vacant spot. The
playing pieces that is jumped is removed
from the game board. Playing pieces may
move or jump vertically or horizontally but
not diagonally.
Draughts (Checkers)
 Draughts, one of the all-
time favorite two-player
board games, combines a
Chess board of 64 black
and white squares with the
pieces of medieval
backgammon and the
moves of Alquerque. The
rules are quite simple and
can be learned in minutes.
Draughts origins
 Draughts originated about 1000 AD in
France, where the pieces were called Ferses,
after the name of the queen in medieval
game of Chess. The game itself was known
as Fierges. But when the name of the Chess
queen was changed to Dames, each piece in
Draughts also became known as a Dame
and the game of Dames.
Two ways to play checkers
 `When a rules making it compulsory to capture an
opponent’s piece became popular in France around
1535, two versions of the game emerged. The
capturing game was known as Jeu force, and the
non-capturing game or non-huffing game as Le
Jeu Plaisant de Dames, later simplified to Plaisant.
The capturing game made its way in the 16th
Century to England, where it was called Draughts,
and on to North America, where it is called
Checkers.
Chess

Chess is a recreational and
competitive game played between
two players. Sometimes called
Western chess or international
chess to distinguish it from its
predecessors and other chess variants,
the current form of the game emerged
in Southern Europe during the second
half of the 15th century after evolving
from similar, much older games of
Indian and Persian origin. Today,
chess is one of the world's most
popular games, played by millions of
people worldwide at home, in clubs,
online, by correspondence, and in
tournaments.
Chess continued
 The game is played on a square chequered
chessboard with 64 squares arranged in an
eight-by-eight square. At the start, each
player (one controlling the white pieces, the
other controlling the black pieces) controls
sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two
rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight
pawns. The object of the game is to
checkmate the opponent's king, whereby the
king is under immediate attack (in "check")
and there is no way to remove it from attack
on the next move.
Fox and Geese




Fox and Geese, an intriguing contest between two
unequal opponents, has been a favorite board game
through out Europe since the Middle Ages. Brought
to America both by Hessian mercenary troops and by
the French troops under Lafayette’s command during
the Revolutionary War, it remains a popular game
today.
Begin with 15 geese game pieces placed like the dark
circles below and the fox like the white circle.
Place the fox game piece near the center. The geese
make the first move. The fox is free to move in any
direction, to any adjacent vacant point. The geese
can only move forward, left or right, but not
backwards. The fox tries to capture a goose piece by
jumping over it to the next adjacent vacant point. If
the fox misses a chance to jump a goose, he is
bluffed and must return on of the captured geese to
the top of the board. The geese try to corner the fox
so that he cannot move.
To Win The fox wins if he captures enough geese so
that they are unable to surround him. The geese win
if they get 8 geese to the other end of the board
without getting captured or if they corner the fox and
he cannot move or jump.
Nine Men’s Morrice

Nine Men's Morrice was a board game that could be played on a board, a piece of paper, or
even drawn in the dirt. Simple markers of corn, stones, or beans could be used for play.

Morrice is a game for two players. Each player has nine markers. Players may select coins,
beans, or whatever they would like for their markers, so long as their markers are different
from their opponent's.
Object of the Game Nine Men’s
Morris
 The object of the game is to make rows of three markers on a line, and to
prevent the other player from doing the same.
 The players take turns putting down one marker at a time, always placing
them at the point where the lines cross or connect to each other. This
means markers can be placed horizontally, vertically, or even diagonally
at one of the board's four corners. Three markers in a straight line make
a row, and if they are cleverly arranged, one may form a part of two rows.
 When all the markers have been placed on the board, the players may
begin to move. Players take turns sliding one marker at a time along the
lines, from one point to the next. The object is still to make rows by sliding
the markers to different points on the board, and blocking the other
player. Whenever one player makes a new row of three markers, he or she
chooses one of the other player's markers, picks it up off the board, and
lays it aside. If a player is reduced to only two markers left, he or she may
give up the game as lost since three markers are always necessary to
complete a row.
Tiddleywinks
 Players use a disk called
a shooter to flip small
disks called winks into a
cup that sits in the
middle of the playing
area. The object of the
game is to be the first
player to sink all of his
or her disks into the cup.