If you haven't read this book yet, I'd suggest you do because it is a fascinating read for chess players and non players alike.
Very funny in parts because as a chess player you just might recognize yourself.
Chess is an art of dreamlike impermanence--J.C Hallman.
World's oldest game? Apparently it's a lot more permanent than I thought.
I've heard about that book. I'll try to pick it up. I enjoy reading about chess as much as I do playing it...Thanks for the tip...
The World's oldest game is kill thy neighbour, besides that:
This is older than chess ->>
Some of the most common pre-historic and ancient gaming tools were made of bone, especially from the Talus bone, these have been found worldwide and are the ancestors of knucklebones as well as dice games. These bones were also sometimes used for oracular and divinatory functions. Other implements could have included shells, stones and sticks.
The Royal Game of Ur, or Game of Twenty Squares was played with a set of pawns on a richly decorated board and dates from about 3000 BCE. It was a race game which employed a set of knucklebone dice. This game was also known and played in Egypt. A Babylonian treatise on the game written on clay tablet shows that the game had astronomical significance and that it could also be used to tell one's fortune.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_gamesChess is not the world's oldest game. Sometimes it's better to be understood then correct. I suspect it's mostly a marketing thing because it sounds good to an English speaking audience. With a quick Google search any 5 year old can find examples to the contrary, of course.
it's funny because I was waiting for people to copy Wiki articles saying Go was older.
For the most part the average person on the street if asked would likely say either Go or Chess is the oldest game depending if they were in China or the west.
There is not even any agreement on where chess came from, let alone how old it is, what did the original chess pieces and rules look like etc?
The author was a chess newbie posing as a chess historian to infiltrate a strange place on Earth that was obsessed with chess, is the point.
The book is especially fascinating because Hallman was interested in chess not for the love of the game but for the characters he observed that were. As chess players we have all seen these characters and know exactly what he is describing.
And even if you know nothing about the rules of chess you certainly are aware of the game if you are older than a toddler. Hallman brings everyone into this world and exposes the madness at the highest levels of the chess world, a place that nobody reading this will likely ever go.
Chess or Go are so complex, how could they be the oldest games? In the sense of most played they may be oldest, though.
Sounds like a very interesting chess book, thank you.
I agree Go is the oldest Board Game. Chaturanga, the origin of western chess, are played in Ancient time using humans as chess pieces.
This is a very enjoyable book.
@Sacmaniac Chess isn't the oldest 'game', rather mancala is the oldest one.
Some historians believe that mancala is the oldest game in the world based on the archaeological evidence found in Jordan that dates around 6000 BCE. The game might have been played by ancient Nabataeans and could have been an ancient version of the modern mancala game.
Also, there isn't sign of any game before 6000 BCE.
It was only recently that I read this book for the second time after purchasing it in 2004.
At the time I remember it was so enjoyable that I felt compelled to contact the author J.C. Hallman by email.
Those were such different times because authors would actually engage instead of the usual auto-reply of today.
I had contacted several people in the chess world because of the enjoyment of their books and even talked to people on the phone like Susan Polgar and Bruce Pandolfini because of my own involvement in chess products.
There was even a time that famous authors like Dan Brown, from The Da Vinci Code and Neil Strauss of, The Game, would gladly respond to my emails and we'd go back and forth. That was all during the earlier days of the Internet. And they will never return.
However, I was fortunate to work for a respected limousine company in a popular travel destination and had the rare opportunity to meet several of the most famous celebrities in the world over a span of 15 years. Instead of just reading some words we actually shared hours together and I was able to get a real feel for what they are all about. Because of the Bearbug, travel has dried up in my city and most of the rest of the world so there is once again time for chess. There is no point I suppose to telling you this, only that it's the truth and I'm bored.
I realize that most people resent hearing this and that few like a name dropper, so I will spare you the details and names. Also you wouldn't believe my stories because they are stranger than fiction in many ways.