Hi, Mike!!! You and your old game boards!!! I wonder if there is a game store somewhere that specializes in reproductions of the old ones--I will look around the next time I am out shopping, since I am waxing nostalgic at the moment. In any event, I remember the board you are describing from my own childhood. That other side is spelled "ouija", I think, incidentally.
I do play chess, a little. When I was younger and had boyfriends, a couple of them were WAY into chess, and I enjoyed playing with them. My husband and I played before our daughter was born, not really well though, since neither of us is good enough to inspire or teach the other. I am unpredictable at chess, and when I win it is with an unexpected, kamikaze kind of strategy totally unrecognized in the world of serious play.
I would not want to embarass myself by hanging out at Chess Masters, but, metaphorically speaking, I do glide around the checkered board constantly anyway. It is perhaps difficult for relative newcomers at SI to understand this, but above all else, this place is the MOTHER of chess games--brilliant, shrewd (did I mention often unethical?) players with memories like elephants, on an international board--playing for keeps, for sheer survival as well as wicked amusement and sinful pleasure. |
