"The annual Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) Awards are like the Oscars of the tabletop. Acclaimed British author and games expert James Wallis investigates the winners and losers of each year s contest to track the incredible explosion in amazing new board games. From modern classics like CATAN, Ticket to Ride, and Dixit to once-lauded games that have now been forgotten (not to mention several popular hits that somehow missed a nomination),...

Introduces readers of all levels to different perspectives on chess, from strategy and etiquette, to winning defensive and offensive secrets. Contains chapters on computer chess games, playing chess online, new tournament rules and much more.

Chess is played on every continent and by several hundred million people. It's the most popular board game in the world, and people of all ages love to play! In Chess: Be the King!, you'll start by learning how the pieces move and then progress to the more complicated ideas behind the best moves for the different phases of the game. This book offers something for beginners who have never picked up a chess piece as well as more advanced instruction...

This "marvelously absorbing" book is "a walk on the wild side of words and ventures into the zone where language and mathematics intersect" (San Jose Mercury News).
A former Wall Street Journal reporter and NPR regular, Stefan Fatsis recounts his remarkable rise through the ranks of elite Scrabble players while exploring the game's strange, potent hold over them—and him.

At least thirty million American...

This is the first book to fully capture the story of the exotic and exciting game of Mahjong or "Mah Jongg", offering an intimate look at the history of the game as well as the visual beauty of the tiles. When authors Ann Israel and Gregg Swain began playing Mahjong, they were unaware of the vintage collections that existed not only in the United States but also as far ranging as Africa to New Zealand. Slowly, they started to collect their own sets...

Mah Jong for Beginners is one of the first books to explain the game to English language readers. It remains a classic, both for its authenticity and clarity, and as a wonderful introduction for anyone who wants to know more about the fast-paced and complex game of Mah Jong. It contains everything you need to know to get started playing this Chinese tile game. Drawing directly on the rules and regulations of the Mah Jong Association of Japan, it offers...

Letterati spans the history of competitive Scrabble® in North America from the colorful hustlers of the 1960s New York game rooms, to the hard driving quantitative tile pushers who dominate the game today with strategic skills and memorized vocabularies. Yet, there is more to the history of Scrabble® than just playing the game. There is a parallel plot line that revolves around many of the top players, who over the years have wanted to see the game...

For the Love of Board Games is a book that explores how modern, popular board games were created by interviewing the designers behind the games. Stories in this book come from some of the industry's biggest board game designers: Matt Leacock, Jamey Stegmaier, Bruno Cathala, Richard Garfield, Reiner Knizia, and many others. Every chapter features a different board game designer and discusses not only the inspiration behind the game(s) they designed...

Daniel Johnson — journalist, editor, scholar, and chess enthusiast who once played Garry Kasparov to a draw in a simultaneous exhibition — is the perfect guide to one of history’s most remarkable periods, when chess matches were front-page news and captured the world’s imagination.
The Cold War played out in many areas: geopolitical alliances, military coalitions, cat-and-mouse espionage, the arms race, proxy wars — and chess....

Tabletop board games are having a comeback, and especially within a younger, tech-y audience who enjoys the challenge and opportunity to work in an analog sphere. Game design expert Jesse Terrance Daniels teaches all the fundamentals of game design, from rule-setting to physical construction, along with original illustrations that capture the ethos and energy of the young, contemporary gaming community.   Readers will learn the "building blocks"...