Really Classic Board Games Trivia Quiz

Answer: 24

References to a game specifically called backgammon date back to the 17th century. Ancestors of backgammon, however, can be found that are hundreds of years earlier.

The maximum number would be 24 as can be seen by examining a backgammon board. A typical folding backgammon board is divided into half by the fold. On two opposite sides of that half are six elongated triangles which serve as the spaces for the pieces. If your piece starts on the first of these spots, the 24th move of your piece would bear it off. This is actually possible to do with one piece in a single turn if you roll double sixes. The roll would be doubled and six times four equals 24.

Answer: Diagonally

While there are many chess-like games in the world, what many people would call chess or western chess or international chess can be traced back to the 15th century.

The bishop can move diagonally, thus always on the same color of square. Each player starts the game with two bishops, one on the light colored squares and one on the dark colored squares. When the game begins, each bishop is in the back row with a knight on one side and the king or queen on the other. The moves of the queen combine the diagonal movement of the bishop with the horizontal and vertical movement of the rook.

Answer: Canadian draughts

There is fairly concrete proof that draughts goes back over 1,000 years and some historical suggestions that it may go back as much 5,000 years.

Canadian draughts is played on a 12x12 board (144 spaces) with 30 pieces per player. International draughts is played on 10x10 board (100 spaces) with 20 pieces for each player. Both English draughts and Russian draughts are played on an 8x8 board (64 spaces) with 12 pieces for each player. Most versions of draughts follow the same general strategy of moving your pieces diagonally and capturing your opponent's pieces by jumping over them.

Answer: China

Go is believed to have originated in China about 2,000 years ago.

A Go board for standard play has a 19X19 grid drawn on it. Your playing pieces, known as stones, are placed on the points created by this grid. Placing your stones on the grid may lead to controlling certain areas of the board. The game was traditionally considered a pursuit of aristocrats.

Answer: The two players have an uneven number of pieces

In this type of game, one player may have only two pieces compared to 20 or so for the other player.

The English equivalent of this game is called "Fox and Geese" which gives an idea about the uneven number of playing pieces. Whatever the name of the game the two type of playing pieces often have different abilities (such as how they move) and differing goals.

Answer: Rooks

The pieces in Ludus latrunculorum are thought to move most like rooks in chess. (They can move forward and backwards horizontally and vertically).

In this two player game, you are trying to get your opponent's pieces off of the board. You capture and remove one of your opponent's pieces by surrounding it with your pieces on two sides (forwards and backwards or to the right and to the left). While historical investigation has given us a reasonable idea as to how the game was played, there is some uncertainty as to the size and dimensions of the playing board.

Answer: Three

Getting three pieces in a row forms a mill.

Nine Men's Morris may date back to the Roman Empire. A board usually has three squares drawn on it, one inside the other. A line radiates out perpendicularly from each side of the squares, creating a total of 24 points where a piece could be placed. Each time you form a mill you are able to remove one of your opponent's piece. If you reduce your opponent's number of pieces to two you have won the game.

Answer: Othello

Dating from the late 19th century, Reversi is very similar in play to Othello.

The game is made up from an 8X8 game board and 64 small disks that have one color on one side and a second color on the other side. Each of two players is assigned one color and plays disks with that color showing on his/her turns. If the player surrounds disks of the other color with his/her disks in any direction, those other disks are changed to the other color. At the end of the game, the player who has more discs showing his/her color wins the game.

Answer: In the pits on the board

The earliest games of mancala could have been played with a series of small holes in the ground. Nowadays it is more likely that the "pits" are built into the playing board.

Mancala can be found among many cultures in the world leading to a large number of variations. The small stones that are used were originally seeds. The seeds would be "sown" by the player placing one seed in each pit. The number of pits in a game board can vary greatly from a single digit number to a triple digit number.

Answer: 30-- Three rows of ten each

A senet board has 30 square arranged in three rows.

Senet is a game from Ancient Egypt and may date back 5,000 years or more. Due to limited historical records, some guessing has been made by scholars as to exactly how senet was played. It may have some connection to the Royal Game of Ur from Ancient Mesopotamia.