Game Blotter

A Florida candidate for Congress was criticized by his opponent for being a LARPer. In response, the gamer candidate pointed out that his gaming and theater experience was considered an asset for undercover work in the Sheriff’s department.

Meanwhile, the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis is working to have the city designated the National Chess Capital. The club has hired former Senator Jim Talent and former Representative Earl Thomas Coleman of Missouri to lobby Congress for the honor. Reps. William Lacy Clay (D-MO) and Jason Smith (R-MO) are sponsoring the legislation and have already formed a Congressional Chess Caucus. A Congressional Chess tournament is also planned.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is using a board game theme to attack Republican health care policies. The group has created a game it calls “Sick ‘n Broke“.

Chinese tycoon Liu Han is on trial for murder, corruption, and organized crime. It’s alleged that his payments to government officials in Yunnan were made by bringing large sums of cash to private Mahjong games.

In Heyuan, Guangdong province, China a man got in to an argument at a Mahjong club and was kicked out. After returning with a kitchen knife and killing the club’s owner he fled back to his own apartment. Tracked there by police, the man attempted to kill himself by jumping out of the window. Emergency personnel, however, were able to set up an inflatable cushion to catch him. He is now under arrest.

Competing interest over public space in Nicosia, Cyprus has the local government trying to balance between those who preferred public benches as places to hang out and play Backgammon and those who frequent the sidewalk tables of the bars and restaurants that replaced them.

A Battersea, U.K. teen made a board game about gangs in order to teach others how “living on the right side of the law is the better option.”

An Australian journalist jailed in Egypt for broadcasting political news has been occupying his time by designing and building board games.

Prostitutes idled by a government crackdown in Dongguan, China are occupying their time by playing Mahjong.

Returning from the President’s Cup (A.K.A. The Final Four of Collegiate Chess), Webster University’s team had its luggage inspected Chess-piece-by-Chess-piece by the TSA. Ever alert, TSA agents became concerned when the team’s time clocks showed up on x-ray.

A man, now 31, who was convicted in federal court of helping to run a $100 million illegal gambling operation is fulfilling mandated community service by teaching children Chess at a New York City community center. When the man was 9, he was the top ranked U.S. Chess player in his age group.

A 60-year-old instructor at a Chess academy in Providence, Rhode Island resigned his position after being charged by police with solicitation and sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl.

After suing two companies in China last month, Spin Master filed suit this month against two companies in the United States for copying its Flutterbye Flying Fairy toy, as well as its packaging and advertising campaign.

A senior Triad member in Hong Kong is the owner of several Mahjong shops.

Some delegates at a government conference in Nigeria fell asleep during the event. Others played Scrabble on their computers.

Five adults in Rowan, North Carolina were each charged with four counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor after allegedly allowing a group of teens, aged 14-17, to participate in drinking card games.

In the Bahamas, an 18-year-old playing Dominoes in front of an apartment building was approached by a masked man and shot dead.

A Cyprus man who was convicted of murdering his brother-in-law while the latter was playing Backgammon, has been sentenced to life in prison.

A second man has been arrested for shooting and killing someone during a dice game last September in Nashville.

Former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov recently visited Canberra, Australia to campaign for the presidency of FIDE. While he was onstage to help hand out awards at the Doeberl Chess Cup an argument erupted between the president of the Australian Chess Federation and the country’s first grandmaster, who was supposed to be given a life membership award.