Board Games Studies 4/ 2001 CNWS PUBLICATIONS Board Games Studies CNWS PUBLICATIONS is produced by the Research School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies (CNWS), Universiteit Leiden, The Netherlands. Editorial board: M. Baud, R.A.H.D. Effert, M. Forrer, F. Hüsken, K. Jongeling, H. Maier, P. Silva, B. Walraven. All correspondence should be addressed to: Dr. W.J. Vogelsang, editor in chief CNWS Publications, c/o Research School CNWS, Leiden University, PO Box 9515, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands. Tel. +31 (0)71 5272987/5272171 Fax. +31 (0)71 5272939 E-mail: [email protected] Board Games Studies, Vol. 4. International Journal for the Study of Board Games - Leiden 2001: Research School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies (CNWS). ISSN 1566-1962 - (CNWS publications, ISSN 0925-3084) ISBN 90-5789-030-5 Subject heading: Board games. Board Games Studies: Internet: http://boardgamesstudies.org Cover photograph: Koichi Masukawa Typeset by Cymbalum, Paris (France) Cover design: Nelleke Oosten © Copyright 2001, Research School CNWS, Leiden University, The Netherlands Copyright reserved. Subject to the exceptions provided for by law, no part of this publication may be reproduced and/or published in print, by photocopying, on microfilm or in any other way without the written consent of the copyright-holder(s); the same applies to whole or partial adaptations. The publisher retains the sole right to collect from third parties fees in respect of copying and/or take legal or other action for this purpose. Board Games International Journal for the Study of Board Games c n w s Studies 2001/4 Editorial Board Affiliations Thierry Depaulis (FRA) The following affiliated institutes Vernon Eagle (USA) underwrite the efforts of this journal and Ulrich Schädler (GER) actively exhibit board games material, Alex de Voogt (NL, Managing Editor) publish or financially support board games research. Board Games Studies is an academic Institut für Spielforschung und journal for historical and systematic Spielpädagogik, Salzburg research on board games. Its object is to Address: Prof.-Dr. G. G. Bauer, provide a forum for board games research Hochschule Mozarteum, Schwarzstr., from all academic disciplines in order to 24, A - 5020 Salzburg (Austria) further our understanding of the International Institute for Asian Studies, development and distribution of board Leiden games within an interdisciplinary Address: Prof.dr. W.A.L. Stokhof, academic context. IIAS, P.O. Box 9515, NL - 2300 RA Articles are accepted in English, Leiden (The Netherlands) French, and German and will be refereed Russian Chess Museum and Magazine by at least two editors under the final “Chess in Russia”, Moscow responsibility of CNWS, Leiden Address: Yuri Averbakh, Gogolevsky University. Blvd. 14, 121019 Moskwa (Russia) British Museum, London Address: Dr I.L.Finkel, London WC 1B 3DG (United Kingdom) Universiteit Maastricht, Department of Computer Science, Maastricht Address: Prof.dr. H.J. van den Herik, P. O. Box 616, NL - 6200 MD Maastricht (The Netherlands) Corporate Sponsor Spiel des Jahres e.V. Patrons Patrons support the efforts of this journal through continuous financial support. If you wish to become a patron, please contact CNWS by post, fax or E-mail. We hereby thank all our sponsors for their generous support: Irving Finkel, Caroline Goodfellow, Niek Neuwahl, Thomas Thomsen, Spartaco Albertarelli, Jean Retschitzki, Jurgen Stigter. CONTENTS 5 Editorial / Foreword 6 Articles Introduction 8 Articles Alf Næsheim, Beiträge Daldøsa, an old dice game with an obscure origin 9 Erik Østergaard and Anne Gaston, Daldøs – the Rules 15 Peter Michaelsen, Daldøs, an almost forgotten dice board game 19 Alan Borvo, Sahkku, the “Devil’s game” 33 Thierry Depaulis, Jeux de parcours du monde arabo-musulman (Afrique du Nord et Proche-Orient) 53 Thierry Depaulis, An Arab game in the North Pole? 77 Documents and Materials Andreas Bock-Raming Documents et Matériaux Das 8. Kapitel des HariharacaturaÙga: ein spätmittelalterlicher Dokumente und Materialien Sanskrittext über eine Form des “Großen Schachs” Annotierte Übersetzung und Interpretation 85 Book Reviews Peter Banaschak, Schachspiele in Ostasien, by Ken Whyld 128 Comptes rendus Michel Boutin, Le Livre des jeux de pions, by Joris Wiersinga 130 Rezensionen Jean-Louis Cazaux, Guide des échecs exotiques et insolites, by Ulrich Schädler 132 Koichi Masukawa, Awasemono, by Sepp Linhart 137 David Parlett, The Oxford History of Board Games, by Egbert Meissenburg 140 Obituary Yuri Averbakh, Nécrologie In memory of Natalya Ivanova Nachruf (22nd July 1947 - 21st February 1998) 144 Summaries / Résumés / Zusammenfassungen 147 Instructions to Authors 159 6 Editorial he present issue of Board Games Studies covers fewer games than previously. Broadly speaking there are two: tâb and chess. If chess history has a wide cover- Tage, tâb games have been little studied. It is a fortunate opportunity that we can present in this issue four contributions dealing entirely or partially with tâb games. We first have Alf Næsheim’s article on the Norwegian game daldøsa, followed by a set of rules that are common to both the Norwegian and Danish games. Peter Michaelsen, who has been studying daldøs for many years, had published his first conclusions in the Danish journal Ord & Sag (Michaelsen 1999) and gives here a revised version of his work. Alan Borvo, an ethnologist by training and an old (French) friend of the Sámit, offers a fascinating account of the Sámi (Lapp) game sáhkku from his own experience. Thierry Depaulis then publishes a corpus of tâb and sîg games from the Arab-Muslim world which he has been collecting for years from rare or hard-to-find, mostly French sources. He also offers some hypotheses about the strange travels of these games. Chess is now the subject of many renewed studies. Even if some students are recon- sidering the role of India as the birthplace of chess it is crucial to have as many materi- als as possible at hand. The HariharacaturaÙga chapter on ‘Grand Chess’ is of great importance for the understanding of Indian chess variants, and we are grateful to Andreas Bock-Raming for his meticulous edition of this rare text and for his translation into a European language. The Fribourg (Switzerland) IVth ‘Board Games in Academia’ colloquium has led to new approaches in board game studies which will no doubt appear in our forthcoming issues. One of the decisions we took in Fribourg was to hold a colloquium once a year – and not every two years as previously. The next and Vth one will be held in a few months in Barcelona, Spain. These meetings not only are good opportunities to hear learned contributions, but they also provide a venue where ideas can be freely exchanged. Editor Board Games Articles / Articles / Beiträge Studies /4 Introduction: A Neglected Category of Board Games There is a neglected category of board games that are halfway between pure war games, where the only aim is to destroy or immobilize the adversary’s men, and race games, where the pieces have to reach a fixed point before the opponent’s by running along a linear circuit – whatever shape it has – according to the values given by a ran- dom generator. These games form a group with many variations, known under various names from India to West Africa – tâb, tâba, tâb wa-dukk in the Middle-East; sîg, sik, sir, siki, sîg wa-duqqân in North Africa. The game board has three or four rows of cells (between 6 and 25, but most often 12 each), each player having a corresponding number of pieces (i.e. 6 to 25) which he has to move along the rows of cells in order to reach the adversary’s camp. However, contrary to all race games, when a piece lands on a cell that is already occupied by an opponent it ‘eats’ or ‘kills’ (captures) it; ‘killed’ pieces are taken out and are never re-entered. I suggest to call these games ‘race games with direct capture’ or ‘tâb’ games for short. ‘Tâb’ games were not unknown to Murray who has classified them as “war-games played with lots or dice” (Murray 1952: 94-96, 4.10.1. to 4.10.6.), while Bell (Bell 1979: I, 87-90; II, 49-51) describing tablan from Mysore (India), also among “war games”, calls it a “running-fight game”. This category of board games is an important one: it offers a transition between the more regular race games (like pachisi, backgammon, etc.) and the war games. Until recently ‘tâb’ games were known from the Arab-Muslim world only. Hearing that such games were played also in Northern Europe came as a surprise. Denmark and Norway share a game, called daldøs or daldøsa, whose similarities with the ‘tâb’ group of games are so striking that one cannot expect but a link between the Scandinavian games and the Islamic ones. Moreover it appears that a close relative was also played as far north as Lappland! Apart from the construction materials and the shape of the random generators, these Nordic games are extremely similar to some games found in Algeria and Somalia, so we have to wonder when and where they come from. This is why I have tried to end with an historical postscript offering my hypotheses on how an Islamic game has come to the North Pole. Thierry Depaulis Daldøsa: An old dice game with an obscure origin / Alf Næsheim he daldøsa game is unique in several ways. In Norway it is known only in Jæren in the county of Rogaland, and even there the old game is seen only on coastal Tfarms along the beaches of the North Sea. This indicates that the origin of the game is connected with people, who in some ways can be linked to the sea. The board on which the game is played is special because of the holes in which the pieces are plac- ed.