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Entertainment for the Oligarchy

Having played card games like Yu-Gi-Oh! since 2004, the main players to watch in these games hasn’t changed much. When I first started playing Yu-Gi-Oh! the tournament scene was largely covered by a site called Metagame, and the major players to watch were names such as Anthony Alvarado, Chris Bowling, and Adam Corn. By 2007, the exact same names were still contenders featured by Metagame. In three years, the scene never changed. The reason for this was is simple: Yu-Gi-Oh! is a game for the rich. It always was, and always will be.

I’m not saying you can’t be middle-class and have fun playing these games. I’m saying that if you want to be competitive, you have to have money – lots of money – and that just isn’t fair for most people.

The $1000 Rectangular Paper

I remember in 2006, while browsing Yu-Gi-Oh! cards on eBay (mainly because my local card shops never had the “rarer” cards I was looking for), I found a Crush Card Virus on sale for $1000. The pictures were real (the guy had his name on a slip of paper next to the card) and the card set showed it was an official SJC tournament prize card. But $1000? Really?

With $1000 you could buy a respectable gaming computer, or a decent motorcycle. But since a card like this was so hard to obtain, the selling price for it was $1000, and I doubt any middle-class kid would be able to afford it, much less win it (since a tournament-competitive deck generally ran $1500+).

Today, the scene is much cheaper, but still expensive. Tournament-worthy decks generally run at least $500 (and don’t tell me Gadgets, because Gadget decks aren’t tournament-worthy anymore), which is still not a good deal for the average Yu-Gi-Oh! player.

The Good Stuff Is Already Gone

Despite the guaranteed rare per pack, the changes of getting a tournament-worthy rare card was highly unlikely due to the fact that resellers often used deck box examination methods to determine where the rarest cards were before selling the packs. An example of this is pack weighing – a heavier pack is a sign of a rarer card, simply because the rarest cards are more holographic and weigh more than average “rare” cards. Thus, buying a pack online or through the store almost always meant that you would only receive a mediocre “rare” card, and if certain cards were absolutely crucial to your deck, you had to resort to other, more expensive methods such as buying off eBay or through a card reseller.

Would a few Sudoku tips help you solve this puzzle? Many people have difficulty solving even the easiest puzzles. If you are one, or you know someone that has trouble, here are a few tips to increase your solving success.

Sudoku Tip #1 – Where Do You Start

Do you wonder where is the best place to start solving Sudoku? You can start anywhere, but some places are better than others. Some people like to examine a row, column, or 3×3 grid where there are four or more numbers already placed. There is a good chance that you might solve a cell or two here.

I like to use the scanning method to check for cells that only have naked and hidden singles. Some Sudoku solvers call this technique slicing and dicing. The idea is to eliminate cells that can contain the searched number by observing the location of that number in other rows, or columns. If you have enough instances of the same number, you will be left with one cell that must contain that number.

Sudoku Tip #2 – Be Consistent

When using a technique like scanning, you should be consistent. You need to try every number. You can start with the number one, and try that number. Then go to two, and so on until you have tried all nine numbers.

After you have tried all nine numbers, scan again using all nine numbers. Do this as long as you are solving cells.

Sudoku Tip #3 – Find All Possible Candidates

Many Sudoku tips require you to find all the possible candidates for each cell. Doing so you can quickly view every cell to see if you missed a naked single, a single candidate of any number.

Once you have candidates penciled in for every cell, you can begin to use the many candidate elimination techniques. Common candidate elimination techniques include naked pairs, triples, quads, x-wing, xy-wing, and swordfish. There are many others.

As you use these candidate elimination techniques, be sure to remove the candidate from all remaining cells as you solve each cell. Failure to do so will introduce mistakes.

Now you have a few Sudoku tips to help you solve Sudoku puzzles. Every Sudoku puzzle from easy to fiendish can be solved using these Sudoku tips. Find a place to start, be consistent in your scanning, and practice candidate elimination techniques.

You are sitting quietly, staring down at a board that contains 64 squares, 32 of one color, and 32 of another. You have 16 items on the board in front of you that have been fashioned into 6 very unique figures. You play just one opponent and they too have their own army of 16. What is it? Simple, it is the intense battle to ‘checkmate’. You can no longer respond, there is no move to get you out, you’re trapped. The classic game of Chess is one that could be over in an instant if played well, or the drama could go on for hours. The players will be deep in thought and concentration trying to for see their opponent’s strategy and predicting how to outsmart them.

The game was played by aristocrats and noblemen in history. Chess has the reputation of being for the intellectual elite by some. When you think of the ‘chess club’ from high school it’s usually an image of all the really smart kids. Moves and maneuvers can not be random or haphazard if you plan to win at a game of Chess. The ability to focus and concentrate is critical. Because players can drag out play for so long, professional players involved in games or tournament play have timers placed on them to give them a limit to make their next move. If the time runs out, they have lost the game. The form of the game played today appeared in writing dating back to the 15th century. By the 19th century the game involved books of rules and strategies, magazines and journals, clubs and tournaments, even a full blown manual for chess theory. Some may not be aware but the International Olympic committee considers Chess as a recognized sport.

Studies on the game and those who excel in the game have uncovered some interesting results. It is believed that those who succeed are more often left handed people, and those born in late winter rather than those born in early spring will be better at the game. The last characteristic is that those who start playing when they are much younger tend to be more successful. I guess when we are younger, we tend to absorb information more readily, and over think things less. In adult years, this will translate into someone who tackles the classic game of chess with the ability to think, for see and outsmart their opponent.

Father’s Day will soon be here and one of the choices that you might have considered is a Chess Set. If you are an experienced chess aficionado choosing the right set might not be such a big deal. However, if you are not a chess player yourself the thought of buying a set might be daunting. The intent of this article is to give you some insights into the things you need to consider.

Where Is The Set Going to be Used?
Is this going to be a travelling chess set or will it stay in the home? If you expect your dad to take the set with him wherever he goes you’ll want to purchase something that is fairly light but sturdy. Folding chess sets that have a compartment for the pieces is a good way to go. There are some sets that have the look of wood but are magnetic. Handy, if you are playing in an area where the board might get jarred.

If the set is going to stay at home then you have another set of considerations. If your dad has an area where the chess board will stay then you need to consider the size of the board. Boards will range from 12″ x 12″ to 21″ x 21″ or greater. Another possible consideration is to buy a chess table with a built-in board. It’s not at all portable but if you have a place picked out in a family room or library then this might be the way to go.

If your dad is serious player who attends tournaments you might want to consider a good tournament set. The pieces are usually plastic and the board is made of flexible vinyl. A tournament often comes with a tote for carrying the chess set.

Consider the Materials
Chess sets can be fine conversation pieces. The come in a variety of materials including marble, alabaster, brass, pressed leather on wood and wood. Wood chess boards are the most popular and come in a variety of materials including ebony and maple. Note that most wood boards have a veneer on top of a wood composite. Materials such as marble, alabaster and brass can be very attractive but also fragile. Be sure that they will be placed any areas where they are not likely to be bumped or dropped.

Puzzles have been around since time immemorial. It has been around since people learned logic, and until now we still use it as means training our kids to think or just to have something to do while letting time pass. It has been proven from so many studies that puzzles indeed can improve child’s IQ and train them to be logical.

One of the most common types of puzzle anywhere in the world right now is the jigsaw puzzle. Putting up or assembling a bigger image by connecting the puzzle pieces can be quite fun and interesting, especially when there’s a harsh weather outside and you can’t get out. Assembling the puzzle piece is also a good way to bond with the kids.

Those who love this type of puzzle actually love the fulfillment they feel after solving the whole puzzle piece. Though it can be quite challenging most of the time, puzzle lovers understand that the joy of playing it is actually at the assembling part.

A jigsaw puzzle is for the kids of all ages. It is a wonderful hobby to exercise the mind and practice patience. Puzzle pieces of this range from various sizes, sizes of the jigsaw pieces, the size of the whole picture, types of image to put up together, etc., there are so many factors that makes this puzzle easy or difficult to solve. Those simple images like pictures of cartoon characters, etc., are for the kids as they are easy to solve and pull apart again. Those big pictures with images of landscape or picture of the galaxy or horses running, etc., is for advanced, as it usually takes hours to solve it.

Those advanced puzzles are more fulfilling to solve. Some people who get to solve it often frame and hang the puzzle on their walls.

New versions of this puzzle today have more complicated pieces, irregular shape and pieces of the whole picture often range from 750-1000 pieces, really quite interesting to put up all together. The biggest puzzle available in the market right now has 18000 puzzle pieces.