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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.

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.

Chess, this exciting game of strategy and skills and originated in India, spans some 1500 years back in history. In the 6Th century AD it spread to Persia. While the Arabians took over Persia, chess had been taken up by the Muslim’s world and from there it reached Europe. In Europe, during the 15Th century chess was developed towards its present form and rules. Back in the 1800′s competitive chess became more and more noticeable. Throughout the 19th century, modern tournament play began and the very first world chess championship was scheduled in 1886. Throughout the time of the 20Th century the chess theory and the World Chess Federation (FIDE) was founded. The very first chess tournament event was held in the Great Britain, in London and surprisingly it was won by Adolf Anderssen, a player from Germany. Since the end of the 19th century the amount of annually held professional tournaments and competitions grew very fast. If you look closely at a chess board it can teach you the way the people lived in middle age times. Look at the method by which it is set up. After that review of the figures and the way they are used, you will soon recognize that chess is a historical past of medieval times – just in miniature.

The Europeans gave chess pieces the actual names we use them today, simply because this mirrored the way they were living. A thousand years ago they displayed the very way in which both, typical people and persons of rank were living their lives.

The Pawns on the board symbolize serfs, or simple the hard working lower folks. Presently there are a lot more of them on the board, compared to any other piece on the board and usually they are sacrificed to save the much more valuable pieces. In medieval times, serfs were considered to be no more than property of landowners, or chattel. They were mostly left unprotected even though battles were ongoing all around them.

The castle is the next piece or figure on the board. The castle piece is the home, or the refuge, just as it was a refuge in medieval times. In chess, both sides have 2 castles, or rooks, as they are sometimes called too.