There is often some interesting backgrounds among those who create games, which for a player can add some extra interest when contemplating a new game.
Two games, with at least a core element in common, checkers, come to mind as I sat down to write this; those being Croda, and Lasca, (seen as Laska as well).
In pure terms Croda is closer to the checkers most readers will at least be moderately aware of, while Lasca is more directly connected to Bashni, which is itself related to Shashki (Russian Checkers), but I’ll get into the games themselves later.
To start I want to look at the designers.
Croda was invented by Croatian mathematics professor and draughts master, the late Ljuban Dedic.
Lasca comes from Emanuel Lasker (December 24, 1868 – January 11, 1941), who was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher who was World Chess Champion for 27 years (from 1894 to 1921). In his prime Lasker was one of the most dominant champions, and he is still generally regarded as one of the strongest players ever.
What is interesting to note about both these game creators is that they were both highly dedicated board game players.
Dedic was mostly dedicated to draughts (checkers), becoming one of the top players in the world. That might surprise some, but checkers is well organized internationally, especially the 10X10 game, and has been for decades. That has led to rankings coming from recognized tournaments.
Checkers may have the reputation, at least in North America, based off two old men playing in a barber shop on a television show liked the Andy Griffith Show, but there is more to it than that.
Lasker, according to Wikipedia, “made contributions to the development of other games. He was a first-class contract bridge player and wrote about bridge and other games, including Go and his own invention, Lasca. His books about games presented a problem that is still considered notable in the mathematical analysis of card games.”
It might not be a huge surprise that people who enjoy board games contemplate how they might make a game they play better. Trust me, at our gaming table talk often gets hung up on the idea of how to tweak rules, many being ‘house-ruled’ at our table. From there we start talking about how, after years of gaming, we should be able to come up with our own game.
But that is why Laska and Dedic impress me. Our little group recognizes the hours and hours it would take to get a game from vague table talk idea to truly playable game to sell to others is more work than we are willing to undertake. But two world champions, one in draughts the other in chess, found the time to create highly playable games.
And next week we’ll look at both games more closely.
