I have attempted to include on this page the histories of any ancient board game that still has major derivatives which are played today. 'Ancient' is used rather loosely in that I mean board games with histories older than around 1500 AD.
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The Game of Twenty Squares (The Royal Game of Ur) |
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The sublime game of Go (Wei Qi) |
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| The Chess Family (International Chess, Chinese Chess, Shogi) |  |
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The Tafl family (Tablut + Fox and Geese) |
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Nine Men's Morris (Mill, Merels) |
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The Alquerque Family (Draughts, Checkers, Fanorona) |
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Pachisi, the National Game of Indiai (Parcheesi, Ludo) |
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| The Mystical game of Moksha-Patamu (Snakes and Ladders) |  |
| The Captains Mistress (Connect 4) |  |
| Halma was invented about 1880 and Chinese Checkers is just a modern Western version of Halma popular in the 1920's. (But rules were made to be broken). |  |
Reversi, played on a Draughts board was invented in 1888.
Links
You can buy many historical board games, compendia and other quality board games from Masters Games.
Association of Game and Puzzle Collectors (formerly the American Game Collectors Association).
Board Game Studies representing serious study at Leiden University by scholars like Dr. Ulrich Schaedler and Alex de Voogt. They also publish a journal packed with useful info.
Board Games of the World by HL Fourie
jm at tradgames.org.uk