Bear Games

Bear games is a category of board games of which many have historical roots to the Roman empire. They are still played today especially in Italy. They were played in many parts of the Roman empire as far away as Turkey and France. All of the games are two-player abstract strategy board games. Normally, the game is played with three hunters and one bear on a patterned board. It bears similarity to the hunt games such as the Fox games, Rimau-rimau, and Bagha-Chall, however, there are no captures involved. The three hunters are trying to hem in the bear, and block its movements.

The closest relative of the Bear games are the Hare games. In this case, the hares are the "hunters" (a reversal in the naming procedure where the bear in the Bear games is the "hunted"), and there are three of them which is the same number of hunters in the Bear games. The difference is that the hares cannot move backwards in any way, whereas, the hunters can move in any direction. As a result, the boards used are also different. Another close relative is the game called Watermelon Chess. In one of the Bear game variants, the board is the same as that of Watermelon Chess. Furthermore, the game Sz'Kwa also uses the same board, although it is not actually related to the Bear games since the rules and game play are completely different.

Read more about Bear Games:  Goal, Equipment, Game Play and Rules, Analysis, Related Games

Famous quotes containing the words bear and/or games:

    A taxidermist stuffed a bear with such brio that he cried aloud “I love it!” A passing goddess, imperfectly understanding, but wishing to be responsive, kindly brought the beast to life. It consumed the artisan forthwith. Moral: Say what you mean.
    Stan Washburn (b. 1943)

    Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)