Saturday, January 14, 2006

Weekend Gaming

We had another old friend for lunch, Rachel. Rachel left Israel about seven years ago, had some rough times, got divorced, and finally made it back a few weeks ago. She brought back with her her seven and a half year old daughter.

Rachel is the daughter of Ephrayim, a war gamer who lives down the road from us. Eph came to our group a few times, but didn't really like the Eurogames, and couldn't find people willing to play the old time Avalon Hill games he has stacked in his closet.

Rachel's daughter also loves games (shoot, I can't remember her name - I'm terrible with names). After lunch, while the grown ups went off to do the boring things that grown ups do, she and I played a whole bunch of games:

Othello

The Menorah Game, which she liked. We played twice.

Yinsh, also twice. The second game was very close. She actually pulled ahead of me and I only managed to eke out a win.

Go, which she wanted to learn in order to play with her cousin. We played on a 9x9 board and I gave her a 4 stone advantage. She beat me with 46 spaces.

Kings in the Corner, a rather brainless card game which she taught me (and won).

She calmly asked me questions, and not just about rules, but about strategy. She was VERY bright and VERY well mannered, aside from accidentally knocking things around the board a few times with her sleeve. She was always polite and happy to play whether she won or lost, and was determined to finish a game even when she knew she was losing. Much better than a number of grown-ups I know.

I hope to see her again.

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