Recent Changes

These are the most recent reconstructions added or edited:

(March 13 2016) Reconstruction of Re-encounter -- Very unusual, in neither having the same start table nor being mirrored. Explicitly a Roman game.
(March 13 2016) Reconstruction of The Quest -- One of the only games that does not involve blotting.
(March 13 2016) Reconstruction of Common Puff -- One of several games that start out by randomly entering your men.
(March 13 2016) Reconstruction of Six, Two and Ace -- A fairly messy game of players tripping over each other
(March 13 2016) Reconstruction of All Tables -- The closest Alfonso game to modern Backgammon, probably a direct ancestor

These are the most recent 100 links added or edited:

(June 19 2026) An in-depth paper on Metromachy (pdf) PDF may not be available (History, Reconstruction, Translation) -- Written in French, including a translation of the Latin primary source into French. (Sadly for us English monoglots.) (more)
(June 19 2026) David Levy's Trictrac Homepage (Reconstruction) -- Via the Wayback Machine. (more)
(June 19 2026) A preliminary reconstruction of Maw by Glenn Overby (Reconstruction) -- This pointer is to the Wayback Machine. (Please support the Wayback Machine -- it is an invaluable service to all researchers.) (more)
(June 19 2026) Justin's reconstruction of Noddy and Early Cribbage (Reconstruction) -- (more)
(June 19 2026) Michel Wolffauer's writeup on Tarot (Reconstruction) -- PDF, adapted from Justin's version (more)
(June 19 2026) So You Have This Chess Set (Reconstruction) -- A quick PDF introduction to several period Chess variations. (more)
(June 19 2026) James Wickson's reconstruction of early Tarot (Reconstruction) -- (more)
(June 19 2026) The Battle of Numbers (Reconstruction) -- An overview of Rhythmomachy, focused on the mathematical aspects, published by the American Mathematical Society. (more)
(June 19 2026) Roman Board Games (Reconstruction) -- Wally J. Kowalski's reconstructions of various pre-period games. (more)
(June 19 2026) Michel's reconstruction of Losing Loadum (pdf) (Reconstruction) -- PDF (more)
(June 19 2026) Backgammon Galore on Irish (Reconstruction) -- (more)
(June 19 2026) Tablero da Gucci at the Game Cabinet (Reconstruction) -- This sounds like a pretty authoritative description of the drinking game. (more)
(June 19 2026) Justin's description of Early French Tarot (Reconstruction) -- Largely based on Michael Dummett's The Game of Tarot (more)
(June 14 2026) The Viking Answer Lady on Tafl Games (Reconstruction, History, Archaeology, Bibliography) -- A lovely, detailed article on the Tafl family in general, outlining the major variants. (more)
(June 14 2026) Michel Wolffauer's reconstruction of El Mundo (Reconstruction) -- PDF, two pages (more)
(June 14 2026) Hazard on the Landsknecht page (Site is gone) (Reconstruction) -- (more)
(June 14 2026) Michael Wolffauer on Trappola (Reconstruction) -- (more)
(June 14 2026) Wikipedia article on Shagai (Reconstruction) -- Brief descriptions of lots of games of various sorts played with Shagai. (more)
(June 14 2026) Citadel Chess - Description at The History of Chess (Reconstruction) -- (more)
(June 14 2026) A news article about reconstructing Kottabos (Reconstruction) -- Talks a little about the reconstruction process, and has a video of people playing at the game. (more)
(June 13 2026) Islamic Backgammon (History) -- Uses period illustrations to show that something like Irish was played in the Eastern Islamic territories in period. (more)
(June 13 2026) Accademia del Tarocchino Bolognese (History) -- In Italian -- has a number of interesting-looking articles on the game, some of them relating to its history. (more)
(June 13 2026) A History of Chess, by HJR Murray (History, Rules) -- The definitive work on Chess history and variants. A century old, but still the gold standard. (more)
(June 13 2026) Strawberry's reconstruction of Karnöffel (Reconstruction, History) -- A dash of history, and a couple of reconstructions. (more)
(June 13 2026) Parlett on the Leaf Game (History) -- A discussion of what we know about the ancient Chinese game that purportedly led to the invention of cards (more)
(June 13 2026) Skittles on Traditional Games (History) -- Gives a good deal of history, and information about regional variations in Britain. (more)
(June 13 2026) Chronology of Backgammon and Tables in England (History, Bibliography) -- Via the Wayback Machine. A summary of some major references to Tables in English literature. (more)
(June 13 2026) A History of Cribbage (History) -- By James Masters, on the Traditional Games page (more)
(June 13 2026) Asia Society on Pachisi (History) -- (more)
(June 13 2026) Discussion at The History of Chess (Reconstruction, History) -- By far the most detailed discussion of this game that I know of. Mainly focuses on debunking the myths about the antiquity of this variant, arguing strongly that, while it is SCA-period, it isn't as ancient as folks usually claim. (more)
(June 13 2026) History of Games Timeline (History) -- A partial but useful timeline of a number of games, from Rose and Pentagram. (more)
(June 13 2026) History of Battledore and Shuttlecock (History) -- A brief discussion on Traditional Games. (more)
(June 13 2026) Stoolball at Traditional Games (History) -- (more)
(June 13 2026) Tennis at Traditional Games (History) -- (more)
(June 13 2026) Fox and Geese - How to Play and History of the Game (History, Rules, Video) -- (YouTube video, 15 minutes) (more)
(June 13 2026) Hickock Sports on Curling (Modern Play, History) -- Via the Wayback Machine. (more)
(June 13 2026) Billiards on Traditional Games (History) -- A quick but good overview of the evolution of this family of games. (more)
(June 13 2026) Jean-Louis Cazaux' History of Chess (History, Reconstruction) -- An excellent in-depth site, giving lots of information on the topic. Discusses the history, the archaeology, lots of papers about chess, many variations (including a lot of Eastern variants), etc. (more)
(June 13 2026) Parlett on Piquet (History) -- Goes into quite a bit of history, since this period game has more or less survived down the centuries; does not actually give the detailed rules. (more)
(June 13 2026) Wareham Forge on Hnefetafl (Reconstruction, History) -- Includes a bunch of links. (more)
(June 13 2026) Imran Ghory's Listing of Tables in English Literature (History, Bibliography) -- Via the Wayback Machine. A useful chronology of pre-20th century references to Tables Games, likely useful for research. (more)
(June 13 2026) Chess History and Reminiscences (History) -- A 19th century book on Chess, by HE Bird, transcribed by Project Gutenberg. (more)
(June 13 2026) Mancala on Traditional Games (History) -- An overview, describing the variety of the games. (more)
(June 13 2026) Parlett on Ombre (History, Reconstruction) -- (more)
(June 13 2026) Rounders at Traditional Games (History) -- (more)
(June 13 2026) History of Quoits at Traditional Games (History, Modern Play) -- Goes into some detail about the regional variations in Britain. (more)
(June 12 2026) History of Boules and Petanque (History) -- From "la boule bleue", a French company making high-end boules sets. (more)
(June 12 2026) Wikipedia on Curling (History, Modern Play) -- (more)
(June 12 2026) Shovelboard on Traditional Games (History) -- (more)
(June 12 2026) Discussion on the History of Chess page (History) -- Makes the point that we are working from very thin information here. (more)
(June 12 2026) Parlett on Karnoeffel (History, Reconstruction) -- (more)
(June 12 2026) Pachisi on Traditional Games (History) -- (more)
(June 12 2026) Fithcheall and Gwyddbwyll: Hnefatafl or Not? (History, Rules) -- An interesting little article, summarizing the open question of whether these games were actually in the Tafl family (as is often assumed). (more)
(June 12 2026) Cricket on Traditional Games (History) -- (more)
(June 12 2026) The TarotL History Information Sheet (History) -- Compiled by members of the TarotL group, this is a concise look at various myths about the deck, and the current historical understanding. (more)
(June 12 2026) The Game Cabinet on Tafl Games (Reconstruction, History) -- An overview of the family, including some of the more distant cousins, Seega and Latrunculi. (more)
(June 12 2026) A brief history of the Tarot (History) -- (more)
(June 12 2026) Ragnar Thorbergsson's Analysis of Tafl (Reconstruction, History) -- One of the more important articles on the subject, this doesn't just use the sources, it also does some analysis of the playability of different reconstructions, in order to find the most plausible reconstruction. (more)
(June 12 2026) Liar's Dice in Folklore in History (History, Rules) -- A good article tracing what we do and don't know about Liar's Dice, and evaluating what is actually plausible in the historical claims. (more)
(June 12 2026) History of Bocce at bocce.org (History) -- Via the Wayback Machine. (more)
(June 12 2026) Parlett on Costly Colors (Reconstruction, History) -- Goes into some detail about what little we know about the game (more)
(June 12 2026) Parlett on Reversis (History, Reconstruction) -- (more)
(June 12 2026) The Asia Society on Backgammon in Persia and China (History) -- (more)
(June 12 2026) The Asia Society on Sugoroku (Reconstruction, History) -- Brief, but useful. (more)
(June 12 2026) Description on The History of Chess (Reconstruction, History) -- (more)
(June 12 2026) Deciphering the World's Oldest Rule Book (History, Video) -- A YouTube video (about 7 minutes) by the curator at the British Museum who managed to put the board and the cuneiform rules together. (more)
(June 12 2026) A 14th c. MS with info about Merels and Tables (History, Primary Source Material) -- (more)
(June 11 2026) Galleron's reconstructed Pochspiel board (Reconstruction) -- Posted by Master Galleron de Cressy on DeviantArt. (more)
(June 11 2026) Carolus Chess page (History, Overview) -- An interesting overview of the history of chess. A few sections need a grain of salt, but worth looking over. Site link uses Wayback Machine. Some image links may be broken. (more)
(June 11 2026) The Games of Chess and Backgammon in Sasanian Persia (pdf) (History) -- A longish and very scholarly essay, adducing lots of evidence for early forms of the games in Persia, and discussing what we know about them in Persian society. (more)
(June 11 2026) Courier Chess Description at The History of Chess (Reconstruction, History) -- (more)
(June 11 2026) Biography of a Board Game: Game of the Goose podcast (History) -- A very good, short (~9 minute) capsule history of the game, in podcast form. (more)
(June 11 2026) Hnefatafl World Championship (History, Modern Play, Reconstruction) -- Run by the Fetlar organization, and gives a bit of info about the game itself (more)
(June 11 2026) The Origins of Backgammon - no longer available (History) -- A very neat page, citing several solidly medieval sources. (more)
(June 11 2026) The Enigma of the Birth of Chess (History) -- A multi-page analysis of what we know about the early history of Chess (more)
(June 11 2026) On the Origin and Diffusion of European Ball Games, a Linguistic Analysis (pdf) (History) -- An academic paper on where the games came from (more)
(June 11 2026) Sten Helmfrid on Tafl Games (Reconstruction, History, Archaeology) -- Nominally focused on Hnefetafl, but really a fine, deeply detailed overview of the entire family. (more)
(June 11 2026) The Beginnings of Chess (pdf) (History, Archaeology) -- An in-depth academic paper analyzing the sources, with an eye towards figuring out where Chess came from. (more)
(June 11 2026) Discussion on The History of Chess (Reconstruction, History) -- (more)
(June 10 2026) A Pictish Origin for Hnefetafl? (pdf) (History, Research) -- Speculations about the possible origins of the game. (more)
(June 10 2026) The Lewis Hoard of Gaming Pieces: A Re-examination of their Context, Meanings, Discovery and Manufacture (Archaeology, Equipment, History, Research) -- Article no longer available (more)
(June 6 2026) Hazard - History of the Game and How to Play (History, Rules, Video) -- (YouTube video, 17 minutes) (more)
(June 6 2026) The Old Texts (History) -- A deeply detailed chronology of the known Chess sources. Note that this runs five pages -- don't miss the navigation bar at the end! Nicely color-codes the sources (Indian, Chinese and European) so you can keep track of these highly parallel histories. (more)
(June 6 2026) Susan Granquist's page on Tafl (Reconstruction, History) -- A relatively brief description. (more)
(June 6 2026) Ringing the Bull at Traditional Games (Reconstruction, History) -- Legend says it came back with the Crusaders. (more)
(June 6 2026) Jean-Louis Cazaux' speculations about Ashtapada (Reconstruction, History) -- This page has an in-depth discussion about why the author disagrees with HJR Murray's reconstruction, and provides his own best guess about how the game way played. (more)
(June 6 2026) Met Lecture 1 on the History of Chess (Video, History) -- A YouTube video lecture on Chess (more)
(June 6 2026) History of Backgammon on Traditional Games (History) -- Brief outline of the history of Tables games. (more)
(June 6 2026) Parlett on Losing Lodam (Reconstruction, History) -- (more)
(June 6 2026) The History of Bocce (History) -- A concise one-pager outlining some of the history we know about. (more)
(June 5 2026) New Thoughts on Dominoes (History) -- A brief page citing some evidence that dominoes may have been known in England as early as the time of Henry VIII. (But see notes below.) (more)
(June 4 2026) Dagonell on Quoits and Horseshoes (Reconstruction) -- (more)
(June 4 2026) Dagonell's description on Alquerques (Reconstruction, History) -- (more)
(June 4 2026) Dagonell on Tablero de Jesus (Reconstruction, Modern Play) -- Proven to be a game from the 1970s. (more)
(June 4 2026) Dagonell on Kubb (Reconstruction, Modern Play) -- Potentially a game that Vikings played. Similar to bowling, but with sticks. (more)
(June 4 2026) Dagonell on Hopscotch (Reconstruction) -- (more)
(June 4 2026) Dagonell on Gluckshaus (Reconstruction) -- (more)
(June 4 2026) Dagonell on Hazard & Craps (Reconstruction) -- (more)
(June 3 2026) Dagonell on Dwyle Flonking (Reconstruction) -- Brief description of a tavern game (more)
(June 3 2026) Dagonell's description of Boules (Reconstruction) -- Information on Boules and Bocce (more)