Noteworthy Books on Board Games & Related Games & Recreations

(Books not in the Collection of R. Dumain)

Compiled by Ralph Dumain


Albert, Michael H.; Nowakowski, Richard J.; Wolfe, David. Lessons in Play: An Introduction to Combinatorial Game Theory. Wellesley, MA: AK Peters, 2007. xv, 288 pp. Table of contents.

Ancient Board Games in Perspective: Papers from the 1990 British Museum Colloquium, with Additional Contributions, edited by I.L. Finkel. London: British Museum Press, 2007.

Bell, R.C. Discovering Old Board Games. 2nd ed. 80 pp. Shire, 2008.

Berlekamp, Elwyn R. The Dots-and-Boxes Game: Sophisticated Child's Play. Natick, MA: A K Peters, 2000. 120 pp.

Berlekamp, Elwyn R.; Conway, John H.; Guy, Richard K. Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays. 2nd ed. 4 vols. Natick, MA: A.K. Peters, 2001-2004.

Bewersdorff, Jörg; Kramer, David (trans.) Luck, Logic, and White Lies: The Mathematics of Games. Wellesley, MA: A. K. Peters. 2005. 486 pp. Reviewed in E-STREAMS Vol. 8, No. 8 - August 2005.

Brown, John William. Meta-Chess: Adventures Beyond the Bounds of Chess. Lewisville AR: Kronschild Publishing. Table of Contents and Preface. Review by Serge Kohl & ordering info. Review by Hans Bodlaender.

Browne, Cameron. Connection Games: Variations on a Theme. Wellesley, MA: A K Peters, 2005. xi, 402 pp. Book review: E-STREAMS Vol. 9, No. 2 - February 2006.

Browne, Cameron. Hex Strategy: Making the Right Connections. Natick, MA: A.K. Peters, 2000. xiii, 363 pp.

Cazaux, Jean-Louis; Knowlton, Rick. A World of Chess: Its Development and Variations through Centuries and Civilizations. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2017. viii, 394 pp.

Conway, John Horton. On Numbers and Games. 2nd ed. Natick, MA: A.K. Peters, 2001.

Crane, Louise. African Games of Strategy: A Teaching Manual. Urbana, IL: African Studies Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1982.

Decker, Ronald; Depaulis, Thierry ; Dummett, Michael. A Wicked Pack of Cards: The Origins of the Occult Tarot. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996. xii, 308 pp.

DeLuca, Jeffrey A. Medieval Games, edited by Evaine fyrdd Brangwen with the assistance of Fideleco de Rocheforte & Leah di Estera, illustrations by Leah di Estera, computer graphics by Fideleco de Rocheforte & Leah di Estera. 3rd ed. Willimantic, CT: J.A. DeLuca, 1995. 203 pp.

Dennis, Lee. Warman's Antique American Games, 1840-1940. Elkins Park, PA: Warman Pub. Co., 1986. 219 pp.

Dummett, Michael. The Game of Tarot: from Ferrara to Salt Lake City; with the assistance of Sylvia Mann. London: Duckworth, 1980. xxxii, 600 pp.

Dummett, Michael. Twelve Tarot Games. London: Duckworth, 1980. 242 pp., [12] pp. of plates.

Dummett, Michael; Decker, Ronald. History of the Occult Tarot. London: Duckworth, 2002. 320 pp.

Dummett, Michael; McLeod, John. A History of Games Played with the Tarot Pack: The Game of Triumphs. Lewiston, NY: E. Mellen Press, 2004. 2 vols. xviii, 910 pp., xxiv [i.e. xxv] leaves of plates.

Fatsis, Stefan. Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2001. x, 372 pp. Table of contents. Publisher description. Biographical information. Sample text.

Hale, Benjamin, ed. Philosophy Looks at Chess. Chicago: Open Court Publishing Company, 2008. 236 pp.

Contents:
Introduction
To know the past one must first know the future: Raymond Smullyan and the mysteries of retrograde analysis / Bernd Graefrath
A deep blue grasshopper: playing games with artificial intelligence / Andy Miah
Playing chess in the Chinese room / Tama Coutts
Garry Kasparov is a cyborg or what chessbase teaches us about technology / John Hartmann
Chess-playing computers and embodied grandmasters: in what ways does the difference matter? / Evan Selinger
The difficult ways of God and Caissa: chess, theodicy, and determinism in Gadamer / Bill Martin
Who plays games in philosophy? / Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen
Hip-hop tactics: a culturalogic expression of the African aesthetic’s role in determining the basis of creativity on the sixty-four squares of warfare / Tommy J. Curry
Quiet, please! there’s a game here: discourse and silence in the formal pragmatics of a chess match / Benjamin Hale
Casuistry and chess: some methodological lessons for ethics / Peter Morriss
Chess is not a game / Deborah Vossen
The reviled art / Stuart Rachels

Hofer, Margaret K. The Games We Played: The Golden Age of Board & Table Games, with a foreword by Kenneth T. Jackson. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2003. 159 pp. (From the New York Historical Society's Liman Collection; based on exhibition, April 2, 2002 - April 13, 2003.) Publisher description.

Contents: Introduction, rules of the game — Parlor amusements — "The world's educator" — Morals to materialism — War games — Parlor athletics — The urban experience — 'Round the world.

Howe, David. The Concise Guide to Chess Variants. 2011.

King, Daniel. Games: Learn to Play, Play to Win. Boston: Kingfisher, 2003. 64 pp. Publisher description.

Contents: Board games. Ancient games I. Ancient games II. Nine men's morris. Fox and geese. Backgammon. Go. Chess. Mancala. Checkers — Card games. The pack. First card games. Rummy. Cribbage. Whist. Spades. Hearts. Blackjack. Poker.

Kovach, Roger P. Oware!, "The National Game of Africa": A Winning Numbers Game. Bolinas, CA: Sapient Software, 1995. 186 pp.

Li, David H. Chess Detective: Kriegspiel Strategies, Endgames, and Problems. Bethesda, MD: Premier Publishing, 1995. 191 pp.

Li, David H. First Syllabus on Xiangqi. Bethesda, MD: Premier Publishing, 1996. 158 pp.

Li, David H. The Genealogy of Chess. Bethesda, MD: Premier Publishing, 1998. 383 pp.

Li, David H. Xiangqi Syllabus on Cannon. Bethesda, MD: Premier Publishing, 1998. 222 pp.

Li, David H. Xiangqi Syllabus on Pawn. Bethesda, MD: Premier Publishing, 2002. 272 pp.

Love, Brian. Play the Game. Los Angeles: Reed Books, 1978. 96 pp. & & game pieces (2 cards). (Presents a history of board games and instructions for playing 46 games from the late 18th to the mid-20th centuries.)

McConville, Robert. The History of Board Games. Palo Alto: Creative Publications, 1974. 104 pp.

Murray, H. J. R. A History of Chess. Northampton, MA: Benjamin Press, 1986. 900 pp. (Reprint of 1913 ed.)

Nowakowski, Richard J., ed. Games of No Chance: Combinatorial Games at MSRI, 1994. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. xii, 537 pp. Table of contents. Publisher description.

Nowakowski, Richard J., ed. More Games of No Chance. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. xii, 535 pp. Table of contents. Publisher description.

Parlett, David. The Oxford History of Board Games. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. xiii, 386 pp. Publisher description.

Polizzi, Rick; Schaefer, Fred. Spin Again: Board Games from the Fifties and Sixties. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1991. 119 pp.

Pritchard, David. The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. Games & Puzzles Publications, 2001. 372 pp.

Pritchard, David; Beasley, John. The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. 2nd, completed ed. Harpenden, Herts, England: John Beasley, 2007.

Russ, Laurence. The Complete Mancala Games Book: How to Play the World's Oldest Board Games, foreword by Alex de Voogt. New York: Marlowe & Co., 2000. xvii, 141 pp. (Rev. ed. of: Mancala Games, 1984.)

Scarpone, Desi. Board Games. Rev. 2nd ed. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Pub., 2004. 160 pp. (Schiffer Book for Collectors) Table of contents.

Scarpone, Desi. More Board Games. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Pub., 2000. 174 pp. (Schiffer Book for Collectors)

Shenk, David. The Immortal Game: A History of Chess or How 32 Carved Pieces on a Board Illuminated Our Understanding of War, Art, Science, and the Human Brain. New York: Doubleday, 2006. xvii, 327 pp. Publisher description. Sample text.

See also: "Check Republics" by Sally Feldman, New Humanist, volume 122, issue 6, November/December 2007.

Voogt, Alexander J. de. A Question of Excellence: A Century of African Masters. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2005.

Wendel, Bruce; Wendel, Doranna; Lee, Schecter (photographs). Gameboards of North America. New York: E.P. Dutton in association with Museum of American Folk Art, 1986. viii, 71 pp. (Published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Museum of American Folk Art titled 'Winning moves: Gameboards of North America,' December 14, 1984 - March 3, 1985, sponsored by General Mills Toy Group.)

Whitehill, Bruce. Games: American Boxed Games and Their Makers, 1822-1992. Radnor, PA: Wallace-Homestead Book Co., 1992. x, 197 pp.

Wilkins, John. The mathematical and philosophical works of the Right Rev. John Wilkins, late lord bishop of Chester: to which is prefix’d the author’s life, and an account of his works. 2 vols. London: Vernor and Hood, 1802. Volume 1. Volume 2.

v. 1. I. The discovery of a new world; or, A discourse tending to prove, that it is probable there may be another habitable world in the moon. With a discourse of the possibility of a passage thither. — v. 1. II. That it is probable our earth is one of the planets. — v. 2. I. Mercury: or The secret and swift messenger. Shewing how a man may with privacy and speed communicate his thoughts to a friend at any distance. — v. 2. II. Mathematical magic: or, The wonders that may be performed by mechanical geometry. — v. 2. III. An abstract of his essay towards a real character, and a philosophical language

Dyck, Maarten Van;. Vermeir, Koen. Varieties of Wonder. John Wilkins’ mathematical magic and the perpetuity of invention. Preprint of article to be published in Historia Mathematica, 2014.

Zaslavsky, Claudia. Tic Tac Toe: And Other Three-In-A Row Games from Ancient Egypt to the Modern Computer, illustrated by Anthony Kramer. New York: Crowell, 1982. 90 pp. (Traces the history and development of the three-in-a-row game for two players, popular all over the world, that is similar to games played in ancient Egypt.)


Note: This bibliography supplements the books contained in my collection. The goal here is to document English-language books on board, specialty card, and other games of preferred types. Physical games and sports are excluded. Mathematical game theory is excluded unless applied to recreational games. Party and trivia games are excluded. Word games and puzzles are generally excluded. Most puzzle books are excluded, unless they pertain to some specific puzzles of interest or fall into the category of logical puzzles or mathematical recreations by important authors. (I must expand the list of recreational mathematics books by Martin Gardner.) Computer games are generally excluded unless they are based on board games or replicate the intellectual properties of board games and puzzles of interest. Simulation games and arcade games are generally excluded. Board and card games with an extensive literature in English are generally excluded: examples are modern international chess, checkers, backgammon, go, bridge, and poker. Exceptions to these rules of thumb are made for books of distinctive interest or books on various game playing communities. — RD

Since my original compilation of this bibliography I may have acquired some of these books. (23 March 2022)


Algorithmic Puzzles: Selected Bibliography

Miscellaneous Articles & Essays on Games: Selected Bibliography

Bibliography of Board Games & Related Games & Recreations
(As of 30 August 1994) by Ralph Dumain

Bibliography & Catalog of Board Games & Related Games & Recreations:
Games Collection of Ralph Dumain:
Supplement # 1 (1994-2008)

Board Games & Related Games & Recreations: Web Guide

Games in Esperanto-Land by Ralph Dumain

Esperanto Games Web Guide / Esperanto — Ludoj — Retgvidilo

Konstelacio: tabulludo: regularo / Constellation: board game: rules

Monĉaso: tabulludo: regularo / Moneychase: board game: rules

Heksa Ŝako

Leibniz & Games


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Uploaded 1 November 2008
Last update 9 January 2023
Previous update 23 March 2022

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