Pankaj Advani

Pankaj Advani, the 24 years old Indian, won the World Billiards Champion 2009 by defeating the 41-year-old Mike Russell. He  is considered to be the best billiards players India has got after Geet Sethi. Pankaj got the honor of three world titles in billiards and snooker.

Advani studied at the Frank Anthony Public School,Bangalore. He completed his business communications from Sri Bhagawan Mahavir Jain College, Bangalore. He was spotted by Arvind Savur, former national snooker champion, when he was a 10-year-old who used to accompany his elder brother to the Karnataka State Billiards Association hall. Advani showed promise and talent from a young age, he made a notable achievements by winning three world titles at the tender age of 19.

Advani became the youngest national snooker champion at the age of seventeen and went on to achieve accolades internationally as well. He is the first player who got to complete a grand double by winning both the points as as well as the time format titles in the IBSF World Billiards championship in Malta in 2005. He has also achieved the world snooker title in 2003.

He became the first player to complete a grand double by winning both the points format as well as the time format titles in the IBSF World Billiards championship in 2005. He also won the very popular Indian sports award the – Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 2005.

I am sure this young man is soon going to add more feathers, gain more accolades for himself and his country.

Goodluck Pankaj!!!

Tips for Winning Chinese Checkers

Chinese checkers is an easy board game to play because of its simple rules. 2, 3 4 or 6 players can play Chinese Checkers. The winner is the first player that manages to move his 10 marbles to the opposite star corner of the board.

Chinese Checkers

Though the rules for playing Chinese checkers are easy, it can be difficult to win this game. I would like to share with you some winning tips that can help you play your next game better:

Knowing your opponent : This the 1st step in winning the game. Try to study your opponents. If they are new, your half battle is won. If they are smart you need to be more careful in making the moves..

Keep an eye on the opponent’s moves :  Block your opponent by placing your marble in his way, if you see him setting up a row of marbles that he can hop all the way over to your side with.

Move marbles in groups :  Moving multiple marbles help you get more jumping opportunities . This can help you jump over your own marbles as well.

Use Direct Route : Always try to use the straight route through the middle of the board to get to your goal area before your opponent reaches his goal area. Try not to place your marbles into any unused parts of the board so that you don?t have to make extra moves to bring them to your goal.

Filling up your Goal Area : Move your marbles on every row surrounding your goal area.  This helps you in filling your goal area with less moves as you can continue to jump over your own pieces and makes it easier for you to win the game.

Try using these tips and you could win your next game of Chinese Checkers…..Good Luck!!!

Apples to Apples – A Party and Educational Fun Game

Playing Apples to Apples board game

Apples to Apples is an interesting board game for all age group people above 12 yrs. You can call it a party game as it can be enjoyed with entire family and friends or an educational board game as it can also be played within a classroom. 4-10 players are required to play the game. This game has become very popular because of its simple rules and the variations it has.

Rules to play Apples to Apples Board Game:

Each player is dealt seven “red apple” cards; with a noun printed on each card.

One player is selected as the judge of the game.

The judge will be the first dealer who draws a “green apple” card on which an adjective is printed and places it face-up on the table for everyone to see.

The judge also distributes seven cards to all players (clockwise direction) including himself.

How to play Apples to Apples

Apples to Apples

The judge draws a green topic apple card from the top of the pile.

All players should select the red apple card that is the most appropriate match to the green topic card and place it face down in the middle of the table.

All the cards are collected and shuffled by the judge. The judge then decides which card best matches the green card. The player who had placed the winning red card is the winner of the round and collects the green card signifying the win.

All players then draw red cards until they have seven again, and the next round begins with a new judge. Generally, it is the next player in line playing the role of new judge.

The final winner is the player who succeeds in collecting pre-designated number of green apple cards.

This game has various variants too.. I have read some of them at wikipedia.. and found

them pretty interesting.. So I thought I’ll share it with my readers…

Variations of Apples to Apples (courtesy: wikipedia) –

Apple Potpourri: Each player selects a red apple card from his or her hand before the judge turns over the green apple card. After the red apple cards are played, the judge turns over a green apple card. As usual, the judge then selects the winning red apple card.

Apple Traders: To stir things up, on each turn, each player selects one red apple card from his or her hand to pass on to the player on his or her left. Players pass the cards after drawing their seventh card but before the judge selects a green apple card.

Apple Turnovers: The roles of red and green cards are reversed, with players using adjectives to describe the given noun. This can be stymied by the relatively low number of green cards in the box (a third as many as reds).

Apples Eye View: The Judge must pick a red apple card based upon the point of view of somebody, or something else (a house cat, Rush Limbaugh, Bill Clinton, a speck of dust, etc). The player to the left of the Judge determines which point of view the Judge must use for that round.

Baked Apples: After each player plays one card, the judge lays them face up and, instead of announcing the winner, identifies the non-winning cards first, each time explaining why it was not selected. The role of judge passes on to the winner of each round.

Big Apples: Two or more players boasting that the judge will pick their card can agree to each wager one of their green apple cards. If the judge selects one of their red apple cards, that player wins the green apple card and all of the wagered green apple cards. If the judge does not pick one of their red apple cards, the wagered cards are forfeited to the bottom of the card stack.

Crab Apples: The red apple cards are judged on how unlike they are to the green apple card. The card least like the green apple card wins.

2 for 1 Apples: The judge turns over two green apple cards to start the round. Each player selects the red apple card from his or her hand that is best described by both green apple cards. After the judge selects a red apple card, both of the green apple cards are awarded to the winner.

Well, isn’t Apples to Apples a fun as well as educational game to play??

It can be a good form of entertainment at your next party.

All You Ever Wanted To Know About Settlers of Catan:

All You Ever Wanted To Know About Settlers of Catan:
(all about Klaus Teuber as well as history, rules, tips about Settlers of Catan)

Settlers of Catan is a multiplayer board game which has been designed
by Klaus Teuber. It entered the markets in 1995 in Germany by
Franckh-Kosmos Verlag (Kosmos) under the name Die Siedler von Catan.
Today, settlers of catan hits in top 10 board games on the net.
Its not only famous in Germany but also achieved a lot of popularity outside
Europe and has been named as ‘killer app’ of designer board games.

By 1991, Klaus Teuberwas was well on his way becoming one of the
planet’s hottest board game designers. He has won the Spiel des Jahres
(German prestigious award for board and card games) award four times,
for Settlers of Catan, Barbarossa, Drunter und Drüber and Adel Verpflichtet.
In the year 1999 teuberwas left his profession  as a dental technician
to become a full-time game designer.

Settlers of Catan is ranked as one of the most top strategy games of
all time.

Settlers board game being the Island is composed of hexagonal tiles of
different land types which are laid out randomly at the beginning of
each game. In this game, players represent themselves as settlers as
they establish colonies on the island of catan. Once players get settled, they start building settlements, cities and roads. They build these by spending resources (clay, lumber, wool, grain, and ore) represented by resource cards. Each land type produces a specific resource.

Each players will roll 2 dices determining which hexes produce resources. Any players with settlements or cities adjacent to hexes marked with the number rolled receive resource cards of the appropriate type. An unique robber is on the board, if a players rolls 7, they can move the robber to any hex, which will no longer produce resources until the robber is moved again, the robber can even steal a resource card from another player. The main object of this game is to gain valuable resources and build settlements.

A successful strategy is required to win at each and every board and
card games. Do go through the following tips to master this game: –

1) In settlers, every one should try to build the settlements so as to
increase the overall resources. Generally, it is better because it
take away all the opportunity from your opponents to generate those
resources.

2) Secondly, you should understand the value of bricks in this game.
There are only 3 bricks and 3 ore tiles and 4 of other type. Ore is
necessary for cities while brick necessary for roads and settlements,
these 2 are considered as a base to win. Since there are less brick
tiles, it is the most worthy resource.Do remember
this while trading.

3) While trading in settlers game, you should always remember 2 important
things, you should trade “intelligently” and “aggressively”. You should evaluate the board and find which resources are less and which one is in abundant according to that you should treat the rare resources as more valuable in order to get a greater deal for them.

Trading well is a skill you will learn over time, but remember to be “intelligent” and “aggressive” and only then will your progress be much quicker.

Do glance through this section again as I am working on advance strategies
for Settlers and will be posting them soon…

Mochy Crowned Backgammon World Champion 2009

Mochy Crowned Backgammon World Champion 2009

Backgammon is a board game of two players, its seen that, it has attracted an immense number of players. I truely believe that though luck plays a important role to win this game, strategy too is a major ingredient for a win .

My belief of luck and strategy is supported by Masayuki Mochizuk game, he is a well known Japanese Backgammon player who won World Backgammon Championship 2009. 173 players took part in the tournament and every one paid ?1,000, entry fee for the 2009 World Backgammon Champion!

Mochy Mochizuki was titled as world’s best backgammon Champions after defeating Lars Trabolt, world’s Backgammon champion 2008, at the finals held at Monte Carlo World
Championship, sponsored by online gambling site CasinoRip.com.

Mochy is the first Japanese champion in the history of the world backgammon championships, and probably one of the youngest players (born in 1979) to achieve this impressive title.

Viswanathan Anand :

Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand an Indian Chess champion and the
current world champion, was born on 11th December 1969 in Chennai,
Tamil Nadu to Krishnamurthy Viswanatha and  Susheela. His father
Krishnamurthy, who is an retired General Manager, Southern Railways,
and mother Susheela, housewife is an chess/film/club aficionado and an
influential socialite. He has 2 siblings- a brother and a sister.

He gives all his credit for his chess play to his mother, who motivated him
so much that he started playing uner the age of 6. He described his start in
chess in a conversation with Susan Polgar who is a Hungarian-born American
chess player.

Anand did his schooling in Don Bosco, Egmore, Chennai and holds a
degree in commerce from Loyola College, Chennai. When he is not playing
chess he enjoys pursuing his other hobbies of reading, swimming & listening to music.

His Great achievements:

Anand won the FIDE World Chess Championship in 2000 for the first time after defeating Alexei Shirov in the final match held at Tehran.

In September 2007, he once again succeeded in becoming the World Champion by winning that year’s FIDE World Championship Tournament held in Mexico City.

In 2008, Anand was successful in defending his Championship title against
Kramnik in the World Chess Championship held in October in Bonn, Germany.

After such fine play resulting in consecutive successes, he became the first person to win the world championship in three different formats: Knockout, Tournament, and Match.

Anand is one of the four players in history to break the 2800 mark on the FIDE rating list. He was at the top of the world rankings five out of six times, from April 2007 to July 2008. His reign since July 1996 in the top three spot ended in October 2008 as he got dropped out of the world top three ranking.

In 2007 he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian award. He is also the first reciver of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 1991?92. India’s highest sporting honour.

Grabbler a New Word Game :

Grabbler a New Word Game :

Word games are the most interesting and engaging form of board games. Its also serves a very useful and progressive educational purpose as it helps one and all to improve their spelling and language skills. Solving crossword
puzzles, which requires familiarity with larger vocabulary, is a pastime that mature adults have long credited for keeping their minds sharp.

Most word games require skills like alertness, a well-developed vocabulary, and excellent general language skills, including comprehension, spelling and patience. People who play these games witness a lot of improvement
in their daily work.

You can find many different word games or word puzzles; the main goal is to form words out of given letters. Some good word games are easily available in the market and on the net like grabbler, jumble,
lettercube, scrabble etc.

According to me the most interesting word game amongst all is “Grabbler”. Grabbler is a multi-player board game that rivals scrabble, its almost the antithesis of scrabble. There are various word games out on the internet where for a single player not multi-players and that’s what I find most advantageous in grabbler.

Grabbler challenges users to build their vocabulary. The game play requires the players to create interlocking words using alphabets placed on cubes while the strategy involves grabbing as many cubes of your opponents as possible.

Grabbler is a game, where players are given a 12×12 grid of letters with four cubes arranged in the center of the game board and the player must create a word that forms from one of them. Players can also select the cube and rotate to change the letter displayed. The game continues untill each players passes one after the other till they cannot form any new words from the grid. Like with the initial four cubes, and like Scrabble, players can try interconnect and use their opponent’s letters for more points. As you can probably guess, the one with the most points at the end of the game wins.

If you are not aware and have not played yet, do try out this  interesting game at least once with your friends and please do mail me your views.

Board Games for all age groups :

Planning to spend some quality time with your family, but confused as
to how you can involve the entire family, the parents as well as
children. Well, one option that can be considered is Board Games.
Nowadays, different kinds of Board Games are available that can be
enjoyed by all age groups.

A board game  is a game which includes counters or playing pieces that
are placed on, removed from, or moved across a game board in
accordance with the play of the game.

There are many different types of board games for all age levels
ranging from simple Checkers game to a more complicated game like
Cluedo.  Board games created especially for small children are Clue
Junior or Monopoly Junior., Sponge Bob Monopoly, Candy Land, Trouble
and Sorry.

Few Games that suit both the adults and children are :

Scrabble : All age group people can enjoy this game.  Scrabble
involves word choices and spelling and a good memory skill. It is
almost like a crossword puzzle game.  Elderly people can benefit a lot
playing this mentally-stimulating game.

Monopoly: Monopoly is a timeless classic game.  This game can be
enjoyed by 7 year young children as well as 90 year elderly people
mainly because it is a game about strategy, chance, luck and
ultimately about greed.  The only drawback about Monopoly is that a
single game can take hours to complete.

Especially for toddlers –

Don’t Break the Ice : This is a game for ages 3-6.  It involves two or
more players.  The object of this game is to slowly break out pieces
of “ice” without causing the polar bear to fall through the ice.

Candyland :  Though the game is for 3-6 age group children, adults too
enjoy this game.  It involves 2 to 4 players with the main object of
being the first person to get their colorful gingerbread man around
the board and reach the Candy Castle first.

Chutes and Ladders : This board game is for three to ten years old and
require two to four players. The object of this board game is to be
the first person to the top of the board without getting slide back
down to the bottom by a chute. Here, you go up the ladders and slide
back down the chutes!

I am in the process of finding more board games that suit teenagers whims
and fancies.. Do mail me some options..