Board Games

The chess term "check mate" comes from the Persian shah mat meaning "the king is finished."

Modern chess was once known as "Queen's Chess" because its movements were imported from 15th century Italy where the queen's piece was most powerful. Elsewhere in Europe the queen could only move diagonally one space.

It was in France around 1100 that the game of checkers began to be played on a chess board. It was originally known there as Le Jeu Plaisant De Dames, or "the pleasant game of ladies."

Checkers, also known as draughts, is one of the earliest board games mentioned in Western literature. Homer writes of the game in The Odyssey.

The word domino comes from France, where it referred to the cloaked hood worn by priests. Like "dominoes," the cloak was black outside and white inside.

The domino was invented in China. Chinese dominoes are longer than European dominoes and evolved into other tile-based games such as Mah Jong.

Mah Jong is a Chinese tile game that is over 2,000 years old, but it was not introduced to America until the 1920s.

Mah Jong is a complex, four-person game that can take as long as three hours to finish.

Cribbage is a British game in which points earned for card combinations move each player's peg forward on the board until the winner pegs out.

Cribbage is also known as crib. It is usually a two-player board game but can be played with as many as four people.