BGS-Board Game Studies

The International Society for Board Game Studies encourages board game research and hosts a yearly conference. The Board Games Studies colloquium is a multi-cultural event in which scholars, university professors, museum curators, and others involved in games research in the international community speak on various aspects of board games and board game study. Participants also include historians, authors, game inventors, collectors, and game company directors and representatives.

Some of the research is very general and examines board games as a part of play and learning in different cultures. Other studies relate to specific board games and their evolution; such games include backgammon, mancala (wari, oware, awele, et. al.), Halma (Chinese Checkers), the game of India (Parchesi, Ludo, et. al.), checkers, chess, and others.

The International Society for Board Game Studies has previously published a journal, Board Game Studies, and usually issues a book of proceedings following each colloquium.

For a closer look at what Board Game Studies is all about, click below to be taken to a pdf of an article, “Board Game Studies – The Academic Way to Play” that appeared in spielbox magazine in 2011 (Issue No. 4; see also www.spielbox.de):

BGS, the Academic Way

The BGS group holds research seminars every year, meeting each time in a different country, usually in April.

Previous BGS colloquia have been held in:

• 1995: Leiden, The Netherlands
• 1997: Leiden, The Netherlands
• 1999: Florence, Italy
• 2001: Fribourg, Switzerland
• 2002: Barcelona, Spain
• 2003: Marburg, Germany
• 2004: Philadelphia, PA, USA
• 2005: Oxford, UK
• 2006: Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil
• 2007: St. Pölten, Austria
• 2008: Lisbon, Portugal
• 2009: Jerusalem, Israel
• 2010: Paris, France
• 2011: Bruges, Belgium

Coming up:

• 2012: Munich-Haar, Germany
• 2013: proposed: Edinburgh, Scotland
• 2014: proposed: Poland

The Board Game Studies colloquia began as Board Games in Academia, following a preliminary gathering in the early 1990s in England, hosted by Irving Finkel, curator (keeper) of the Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities at the British Museum.

The 2012 BGS Colloquium

17 – 21 April, at the Bavarian Games Archive (Bayerisches Spiele-Archiv e.V.)
München-Haar, Germany (east-southeast of Munich)

Host: Tom Werneck
Information: info@spiele-archiv.de

Tentative program:

P 01   Matthias Teichert The board-game-motif in Norse mythology
P 02  Elke Rogersdotter   Finding Places: locating ancient gaming (remains)
P 03  Chris Dobbs The multifaceted uses of gaming in ancient Rome
P 04   Michele King   Konane: An old Hawaiian game played on rock with lava pebbles
P 05  Irving Finkel   Always look down (Graffiti Board Games in India)
P 06   Alfonso Atala Layun   Cuatro Tribus (Four Tribes)
P 07  Roly Cobbett   Gaming finds from Richborough

P 08  Rainer Buland   Sense, Symbolism and Magic of Figures and Numbers on Baroque Board Games.
P 09  Edite Alberto    Games on Portuguese Rocks
P 10  Gejus van Diggele   The war on the table (Games and Puzzles from World War II)
P 11  Iris Ridder The use of games in medieval mining societies
P 12  Steffen Bogen   Transforming space in boardgames
P 13   Cosimo Cardellicchio   A survey of some connection games in the 50th year of the publication of Twixt (1962-2012)

P 14  Ulrich Schädler  A century of German history and politics in board games
P 15  Alex de Voogt   Mancala games at the pyramids of Meroe
P 16  Yasuji Shimizu   When was Ancient Chess Introduced into East Asia?
P 17  Bruce Whitehill The game of Clue/Cluedo, a contemporary board game
P 18  Gadi Kfir  Road to Victory
P 19  Peter Michaelsen   The diffusion of Tâb games in Medieval Europe
P 20  John McLeod   Scoring and Winning
P 21  Fred Horn  Three Games published in the 1980th by Cobrain, a Dutch Game Manufacturer

P 22  Adrian Seville   Distinctive Features of German Goose Games
P 23   Wolfgang L. Angerstein   Salta and Lasca: Two draughts variants linked by Emanuel Lasker
P 24  Anne-Elizabeth Dunn-Vaturi (Alex de Voogt)  The game of Twenty revisited
P 25  David Parlett  The history of ‚Games & Puzzles’
P 26   Shahrokh Razmjou (Irving Finkel)   Graffiti board games from Iran
P 27  Max Nelson   The Origins and Play of the Ancient Greek Game of City-State (Polis)

P 28  Arie van der Stoep   Why we consider Chess an intellectual Board Game
P 29  Dores Ferreira   Board Games and other games: some connections with mathematics
P 30  Wim van Mourik  A new look at the Alquerque-12 diagram from the Sethos Temple in Qurna, Egypt
P 31  Michel Boutin (Pierre Parlebas)   Differences and similarities of the structure of abstract games and sports games
P 32  Piotr Adamczyk   Museums and board games

Abstracts, Journals and Proceedings

Abstracts were given to BGS colloquium participants but were never made available to the general public.

Proceedings have also been published at various times, based on some of the individual meetings. In 1995, Alex de Voogt published the proceedings from the first Board Games in Academia symposium. This is no longer available.

Board Games Studies, an academic journal for historical and systematic research on board games, was published from 1998 to 2004. Scroll to the bottom of this page for a list of articles, many of which were based on talks given at the various symposia. During this period, only one set of proceedings were published:

Who is behind the International Society for Board Game Studies?

(In alphabetical order)

Thierry Depaulis: prepress manager and editor, studies in History (Bordeaux University), game and playing-card collector, independent game historian mostly interested in “mind” games. Honorary Fellow and Chairman of the International Playing-Card Society, 1992 Modiano Prize (for his publications on the history of playing cards and card games), President of “Le Vieux Papier”, a society devoted to the study of ephemera and other popular prints.

Thierry Depaulis with Sjaak Griffioen on his right

Select publications on the history of games:

• Tarot, jeu et magie (exhibition catalogue), Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, 1984
• Spiele von Hasardeuren — Spiele von Bürgern: die Revolution in den Kartenspielen, in: D. Hoffmann, M. Dietrich, Geschichte auf Spielkarten. 1789-1871, Stuttgart, Deutsches Spielkarten-Museum, 1987
• Jeux de hasard sur papier: les “loteries” de salon, in: Le Vieux Papier, 1987
• Ombre et lumière. Un peu de lumière sur l’hombre, in: The Playing-Card, XV-4, XVI-1, XVI-2, 1987
• Maîtres cartiers strasbourgeois, in: Le Vieux Papier, 1989
• Les cartes de la Révolution: cartes à jouer et propagande (exhibition catalogue), Issy-les-Moulineaux, Musée français de la Carte à jouer, 1989
• Les cartes à jouer au “portrait de Paris” avant 1701, in: Le Vieux Papier, 1991
• Les origines de la roulette, in: Homo Ludens, III, 1993
• Les loix du jeu : bibliographie de la littérature technique de jeux de cartes en français avant 1800. Suivie d’un supplément couvrant les années 1800-1850, Paris, Cymbalum Mundi, 1994
• Storia dei tarocchi liguri-piemontesi, in: G. Berti, M. Chiesa, T. Depaulis, Antichi tarocchi liguri-piemontesi, Torino, 1995
• Le jeu et la loi en France sous l’Ancien Régime, in: Alte Spielverbote — Verbotene Spiele 1564-1853, Salzburg, Institut für Spielforschung und Spielpädagogik / Casinos Austria AG, 1995
• A Wicked Pack of Cards: The Origins of the Occult Tarot, London, Duckworth, 1996 (with Ronald Decker and Sir Michael Dummett)
• Le lansquenet, “jeu de cartes fort commun dans les Academies de jeu, & parmy les Laquais”, in: Ludica, 2, 1996
• Histoire du bridge, Paris, Bornemann, 1997
• Les jeux de hasard en Savoie-Piémont sous l’Ancien Régime, in: Études Savoisiennes, 4, 1995
• Inca dice and board games, in: Board Games Studies, 1, 1998
• Le livre du jeu de dames, Paris, Bornemann, 1999 (with Philippe Jeanneret)
• some 45 entries about different aspects of games for the “Encyclopædia Universalis”, 1999
• La plus ancienne représentation datée de joueurs de dames (1492)”, in: Board Game Studies, 7, 2004 (with Jean Simonata)
• Cartes et cartiers dans les anciens États de Savoie (1400-1860), North Walsham, International Playing-Card Society, 2005 (IPCS Papers, 4)

Contact:  130 rue Lamarck, 75018 Paris / E-mail: thierry.depaulis at free.fr

Irving Finkel: Assistant Keeper, The Department of the Middle East, The British Museum; Assistant Keeper, Ancient Mesopotamian (i.e. Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian) script, languages and cultures; Dr Finkel is the curator in charge of cuneiform inscriptions on tablets of clay from ancient Mesopotamia, of which the Middle East Department has the largest collection- some 130,000 pieces – of any modern museum. This work involves reading and translating all sorts of inscriptions, sometimes working on ancient archives to identify manuscripts that belong together, or even join to one another; works to promote greater familiarity with the ancient Middle East, by means of lectures, workshops and media activity; specializes in ancient Mesopotamian medicine and magic, and is also interested in literature, religion and the history of ideas in this part of the world; renowned researcher and author on the history of board games throughout the world, and especially the preservation of traditional board games in many non-western societies.

Select publications on games include:

• Ancient Board Games. London, England: Michael O’Mara Books, Ltd., 1996.
• Sedentary Games of India. Calcutta, India: The Asiatic Society, 1999.
• Ancient Board Games in Perspective. London, England: British Museum Press, 2007

The British Museum, London WC1B 3DG, England; tel. 0207-323-8310; email: ifinkel@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk

Ulrich Schädler: Archaeologist, Greek and Roman Archaeology, Prehistory; director of the Swiss Museum of Games (Musée Suisse du Jeu) at La Tour-de-Peilz at the Lake Geneva; member of »Iniativgruppe Königstein« for chess historical research; numerous articles in »Spielbox«, the German games magazine, and »Fachdienst Spiel«.

Select archaeological publications:

• Ionisches und Attisches am sogenannten Erechtheion in Athen, in: Archäologischer Anzeiger 3, 1990, 361-378
• Attizismen an ionischen Tempeln Kleinasiens, in: Istanbuler Mitteilungen 41, 1991, 265-324
• Ikonologie und Archäologie, in: Antike und Abendland 39, 1993, 162-187
• Begegnungen. Frankfurt und die Antike, Frankfurt am Main 1994, 2 voll. (with Ursula Mandel and Marlene Herfort-Koch)
• Dallo scavo al museo – scavi di Pio VI nella Villa dei Quintili, in: Bollettino. Monumenti, Musei e Gallerie Pontificie 16, 1996, 287-330
• Archäologie, Theater und Sport im Frankfurter Waldstadion, in: Stadion 23, 1997, 16-59
• Scavi e scoperte nella Villa dei Quinitli, Catalogo dei rinvenimenti scultorei, Catalogo dei documenti d’archivio, in: La Villa dei Quintili. Fonti scritte e fonti figurate, a cura di Andreina Ricci, Roma 1998, 29-234.
• Select publications on the history of games:
• Latrunculi – ein verlorenes strategisches Brettspiel der Römer, in: Homo Ludens. Der spielende Mensch IV, Salzburg 1994, 47-67
• XII Scripta, Alea, Tabula – New Evidence for the Roman History of “Backgammon” in: Alexander J. de Voogt (Hrsg.), New Approaches to Board Games Research, Leiden 1995, 73-98
• Spielen mit Astragalen, in: Archäologischer Anzeiger 1, 1996, 61-73
• Globusspiel und Himmelsschach. Brett- und Würfelspiele im Mittelalter. Darmstadt 1998
• Gaming pieces for chess variants, in: The Chess Collector 1, 1999, 8-13
• Damnosa alea Würfelspiel in Griechenland und Rom, in: 5000 Jahre Würfelspiel. cat. of the exhibition Salzburg (= Homo Ludens supplement) 1999, 39-58.
• Sphären-”Schach”. Zum sogenannten “astronomischen Schach” bei al-Mas’udi, al-Amoli und Alfons X., in: Zeitschrift für Geschichte der arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften 13, 1999/2000, 205-242
• Latrunculi – a forgotten Roman game of strategy reconstructed, in: Abstract Games 7, 2001, p. 10-11.

Postal Address: Dr. Ulrich Schädler, Musée Suisse du Jeu, Au Château, CH-1814 La Tour-de-Peilz e-mail: u.schaedler@museedujeu.com

Jorge Nuno Silva: Researcher and faculty member in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University in Lisbon, Portugal. President of Associação Ludus, organizer of the 2008 BGS colloquium (Lisbon, Portugal). He is the communications connection at the BGS and the moderator of the BGS GoogleGroups.

Select publications:

. Some Notes on Game Bounds, M.A. Thesis, Berkeley 1991, ISBN 1-58112-021-4.

. Mathematical Games, Abstract Games, Publidisa 2007, ISBN 989-20-0507-4 (with João Pedro Neto).

. “Mathematics and Games, a case study: Hex”, normat — Nordisk Matematisk Tidskrift, Årgång 55, Nr 1, 2007, pp. 16–24.

. Proceedings of the Board Game Studies Colloquium XI, (Ed.), Ludus 2009, ISBN 978-989-958-785-4.

. “Jogos matemáticos, a Portuguese project”, in Proceedings of the Board Game Studies Colloquium XI, Jorge Nuno Silva (Ed.), Ludus 2009, ISBN 978-989-958-785-4, pp. 19–25 (with Alda Carvalho, Carlos Pereira dos Santos, João Pedro Neto)

. “Mathematical games in Europe around the year 1000”, Gerbertus, Vol I, 2010, pp. 205–217.

. “Teaching and playing 1000 years ago, Rithmomachia”, in ORBE NOVVS, Costantino Sigismondi (Ed.), Universitalia 2010, ISBN 978-88-6507-053-6, pp. 137–150.

. Proceedings of the Recreational Mathematics Colloquium I, (Ed.), Ludus 2011, ISBN 978-989-95878-8-5.

. “Mathematical Games for the Blind”, in Proceedings of the Recreational Mathematics Colloquium I, Jorge Nuno Silva (Ed.), Ludus 2011, pp.69–72 (with Carlota Dias, Pedro Palhares).

. “Mathematical Skills and Mathematical Games”, in Proceedings of the Recreational Mathematics Colloquium I, Jorge Nuno Silva (Ed.), Ludus 2011 pp. 89–94 (with Dores Ferreira, Pedro Palhares).

. “On Mathematical Games”, Journal of the British Society for the History of Mathematics, Vol 26 (2), 2011, 80–104.

Address:

Jorge Nuno Silva
História e Filosofia das Ciências
Faculdade de Ciências
Campo Grande, C 4
P-1749-016 Lisboa – Portugal

Alex de Voogt: Assistant curator of anthropology, The American Museum of Natural History, New York; Psychologist/Area Studies; studies in cognition of experts and dispersal of board games; initiator of the 1995 and 1997 Colloquium ‘Board Games in Academia’ at Leiden University; fieldwork studies on board games in Zanzibar, Namibia, Madagascar, Barbados, Sri Lanka and the Maledives in addition to various museum collection studies.

Alex de Voogt, BGS Oxford 2005 - photo by Cosimo Cardellicchio

Select publications on board games research:

• Limits of the Mind: towards a characterisation of Bao mastership Research School CNWS: Leiden. (also Ph.D.-thesis) 1995.
• Changing objects: aesthetic qualities of mancala boards In: Museum Anthropology V.20:3. Council of Museum Anthropology: Arlington. 1996.
• Distribution of Mancala Board Games: a methodological investigation. Journal of Board Games Studies 2, Leiden. 1999.
• Mancala Board Games. British Museum Press: London. 1997.
• Moves in mind: the psychology of board games with F.Gobet and J. Retschitzki Psychology Press, Hove UK. 2004.
• A question of excellence: a century of African masters. Africa World Press, Trenton NJ. 2005

Select popular publications:

• Foreword. In: The Complete Mancala Games Book. Marlowe and Company: New York. 1999.
• Going Full Circle. The Geographical, London. 1998/December.
• Seeded Players. Natural History Magazine. New York. 1998/January.

Email: adevoogt at amnh dot org

Bruce Whitehill: Games historian, inventor & developer, collector and player. Host of the 2004 BGS colloquium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Select publications on games research:

• Games: American Boxed Games and Their Makers, 1822-1992. Wallace-Homestead, Radnor, Pennsylvania, 1992
• Americanopoly: America as Seen Through Its Games. La-Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland: Musé Suisse du Jeu (Swiss Museum of Games), 2004
• Game Articles: click to see a partial list of Bruce Whitehill’s game articles.

Email: games at the big game hunter dot org

A Few of the Regulars at the Board Game Studies Colloquia

Cosimo Cardellicchio

Niek Neuwahl with Bruce Whitehill

Bernward Thole

Caroline Goodfellow

Tom Werneck

Arnold de Voogt next to Vanna Neuwahl

David Parlett (right) with Bruce Whitehill, BGS 2005, England

International Journal for the Study of Board Games

Board Games Studies, an academic journal for historical and systematic research on board games, was published from 1998 to 2004. Its object was to provide a forum for board games research from all academic disciplines in order to further our understanding of the development and distribution of board games within an interdisciplinary academic context.

Click on the title below to be taken to the BGS website page that has an abstract for the article  in English, French and German. At the end of each abstract in issues 1-3, you can download a pdf. of the article.

Issue #1

. Articles / Articles / Beiträge

• Ulrich Schädler, Mancala in Roman Asia Minor?
• Thierry Depaulis, Inca Dice and Board Games
• Vernon A. Eagle, On a Phylogenetic Classification of Mancala Games, with some Newly Recorded Games from the “Southern Silk Road,” Yunnan Province, China
• Caroline G. Goodfellow, The Development of the English Board Game, 1770 – 1850
• Lieve Verbeeck, Bul: A Patolli Game In Maya Lowland

-1. Research Notes / Notes de recherche / Forschungsberichte

• Irving L. Finkel, Edward Falkener: Old Board Games for New

-1. Book Reviews / Comptes rendus / Rezensionen

• E.R. Santos Silva, Jogos de quadrícula do tipo Mancala, by Philip Townshend
• A. van der Stoep, Over de herkomst van het woord damspel, by Rob Jansen
• M. Zollinger, Bibliographie der Spielbücher, par Thierry Depaulis

Issue #2

-1. Articles / Articles / Beiträge

• Benedikt Rothöhler, Mehen, God of the Board Games
• Hermann-Josef Röllicke, Von “Winkelwegen”, “Eulen” und “Fischziehern” liubo: ein altchinesisches Brettspiel für Geister und Menschen
• Andreas Bock-Raming, The Gaming Board in Indian Chess and Related Board Games: a terminological investigation
• Peter Mebben, Die Arithmomachia des Abraham Ries und weitere neuzeitliche Überlieferungen der Rithmomachie
• Michel Boutin & Pierre Parlebas, La Métromachie ou la bataille géométrique
• Alexander J. de Voogt, Distribution of Mancala Board Games: a methodological inquiry
• Bruce Whitehill, American Games: a historical perspective

-1. Research Notes / Notes de recherche / Forschungsberichte

• Ulrich Schädler, Vom 20-Felder-Spiel zum Würfelvierschach?

-1. Book Reviews / Comptes rendus / Rezensionen

• W. Decker & M. Herb, Bildatlas zum Sport im Alten Ägypten, by Irving Finkel
• M. Fittà, Giochi e giocattoli nell’antichità, von Anita Rieche
• Alfonso el Sabio, Il libro dei giochi, P. Canettieri, ed., by Ulrich Schädler
• R. Ineichen, Würfel und Wahrscheinlichkeit, von Jörg Bewersdorff
• N. R. Keesen & A. v. der Stoep, Blinddammen en blindschaken, by Rob Nierse

Issue #3

-1. Articles / Articles / Beiträge

• Pascal Romain, Les représentations des jeux de pions dans le Proche-Orient ancien et leur signification
• Alex R. Kraaijeveld, Origin of Chess A Phylogenetic Perspective
• Kôichi Masukawa, Kurze Geschichte des Tricktrack in Japan
• Philipp von Hilgers, Eine Anleitung zur Anleitung. Das taktische Kriegsspiel 1812-1824
• Jeroen Donkers, Alex de Voogt, Jos Uiterwijk, Human versus Machine Problem-Solving: Winning Openings in Dakon

-1. Documents and Materials / Documents et Matériaux / Dokumente und Materialien

• Alexander J. de Voogt, Mancala boards (Olinda Keliya) in the National Museums of Colombo

-1. Research Notes / Notes de recherche / Forschungsberichte

• Thierry Depaulis, Les Indo-Européens jouaient-ils aux dés?
• Anne-E. Dunn-Vaturi, “The Monkey Race”. Remarks on Board Games Accessories
• Ulrich Schädler, Medieval Nine-Men’s Morris with Dice
• Spartaco Albertarelli, 1000s Ways to Play Monopoly

-1. Book Reviews / Comptes rendus / Rezensionen

• A. Sanvito & K. Whyld (ed.), Il Dilettevole, e Giudizioso Giuoco de Scacchi, by Gianfelice Ferlito
• C. & L. Gavazzi, Giocare sulla pietra, by Thierry Depaulis
• J. Bewersdorff, Glück, Logik und Bluff, by Jos Uiterwijk
• G. Westerveld, De invloed van de Spaanse koningin Isabel la Catolica op de nieuwe sterke dame, by Arie van der Stoep
• G. Westerveld, De invloed van de Spaanse koningin Isabel la Catolica op de nieuwe sterke dame, par Thierry Depaulis

Issue #4

-1. Articles / Articles / Beiträge

• Alf Næsheim, Daldøsa, An old dice game with an obscure origin
• Erik Østergaard and Anne Gaston, Daldøs the Rules
• Peter Michaelsen, Daldøs, an almost forgotten dice board game
• Alan Borvo, Sahkku, the “Devil’s game”
• Thierry Depaulis, Jeux de parcours du monde arabo-musulman (Afrique du Nord et Proche-Orient)
• Thierry Depaulis, An Arab game in the North Pole?

-1. Documents and Materials / Documents et Matériaux / Dokumente und Materialien

• Andreas Bock-Raming, Das 8. Kapitel des Hariharacaturanga: ein spätmittelalterlicher Sanskrittext über eine Form des “Großen Schachs”. Annotierte Übersetzung und Interpretation

-1. Book Reviews

• Peter Banaschak, Schachspiele in Ostasien, by Ken Whyld.
• Michel Boutin, Le Livre des jeux de pions,by Joris Wiersinga.
• Jean-Louis Cazaux, Guide des échecs exotiques et insolites, by Ulrich Schädler.
• Masukawa Koichi, Awasemono by Sepp Linhart.
• David Parlett , The Oxford History of Board Games, by Egbert Meissenburg,

-1. Obituary

• Yuri Averbakh, In memory of Natalia Ivanova (July 22nd 1947 – February 21st 1998)

Issue #5

-1. Articles / Articles / Beiträge

• Alessandro Sanvito, Das Rätsel des Kelten-Spiels
• Yasuji Shimizu and Shin’ichi Miyahara, with Kôichi Masukawa, Game boards in the Longmen Caves and the game Fang
• Susanne Formanek & Sepp Linhart, Playing with filial piety – some remarks on a 19th-century variety of Japanese pictorial sugoroku games
• Irving Finkel, Pachisi in Arab garb
• Wolfgang Angerstein, Das Säulenspiel Laska: Renaissance einer fast vergessenen Dame-Variante mit Verbindungen zum Schach

-1. Research Notes / Notes de recherche / Forschungsberichte

• Thomas Thomsen, Chess in Europe in the 5th century?
• Jean-Marie Lhôte, Martin Le Franc et la dame enragée
• Arie van der Stoep, Early Spanish board-games

-1. Obituary / Nécrologie / Nachruf

• Ricardo Calvo (22.10.1943 – 26.9.2002), von Ulrich Schädler

-1. Book Reviews / Comptes rendus / Rezensionen

• Antonio Panaino, La novella degli scacchi e della tavola reale, von Egbert Meisenburg
• Grigori L. Semenov, Studien zur sogdischen Kultur an der Seidenstraße, von Ulrich Schädler
• Leo van der Heijdt, Face to face with dice: 5000 years of dice and dicing, par Thierry Depaulis

Issue #6

Articles / Articles / Beiträge

• Peter Michaelsen, On some unusual types of stick
• Rangachar Vasantha, Board Games from the City of Vijayanagara (Hampi) (1336-1565): a survey and a study
• Mayarí­ Granados, Reflections on the role of baroque games tables with allegories of war in German courts
• Andrew Morris-Friedman and Ulrich Schädler, “Juden Raus!” (Jews Out!): History’s most infamous board game

-1. Documents and Materials

• Manfred Zollinger, Zwei unbekannte Regeln des Gänsespiels: Ulisse Aldrovandi und Herzog August d.J. von Braunschweig-Lüneburg

-1. Research Notes / Notes de recherche / Forschungsberichte

• Thierry Depaulis, Un jeu de pions mapuche au XVIe siècle
• Alex de Voogt, Hawalis in Oman: a first account of expertise and dispersal of four-row mancala in the Middle East

-1. Obituary / Näcrologie / Nachruf

• Ken Whyld (6 March 1926-11 July 2003), by Jurgen Stigter
• Alain Borveau (1933-2002), by Thierry Depaulis

-1. Book Reviews / Comptes rendus / Rezensionen

• Renate Syed,Kanauj, die Maukharis und das Caturanga. Der Ursprung des Schachspiels und sein Weg von Indien nach Persien, von Egbert Meisenburg
• Robert Bollschweiler,Die Handschriften großer Schach, von Hans Holländer
• Roberto Convenevole and Francesco Bottone,La storia di Risiko e l’anello mancante : origini e evoluzione del gioco di strategia più diffuso nel mondo, by Thierry Depaulis

Issue #7

-1. Articles / Articles / Beiträge

• Stephen Duff, Go and Order
• Katsumi Yuhara, The Evolution of Sugoroku Boards
• Michel Boutin, Les jeux de pions à la Belle èpoque

-1. Research Notes / Notes de recherche / Forschungsberichte

• Thierry Depaulis et Jean Simonata, La plus ancienne représentation datée de joueurs de dames (1492)
• Claudia Engler, Karten-, Würfel- und Brettspiel im spätmittelalterlichen und frühneuzeitlichen Bern

-1. Book Reviews / Comptes rendus / Rezensionen

• Jean Louis Cazaux, Du Senet au Backgammon. Les jeux de parcours, von Ulrich Schädler
• Jean Louis Cazaux, Gerhard Josten, Myron Samsin, The Anatomy of Chess. Überlegungen zur Herkunft des Schachspiels, von Ulrich Schädler
• Francis Willughby’s Book of Games. A Seventeenth-Century Treatise on Sports, Games and Pastimes, by David Parlett