Waylou points us to a few nice sets, including:

A $123,000 lacquered “urushi” set, part of an exhibition of urushi sets. (source, image is a sample set from the exhibition, not necessarily the one that costs $123,000) From Alexander Gelman, more about his Chess work on his site.

A non-working facsimile of The Millennium Falcon chess set (the lights flash and it plays a clip from the movie). (source)

Tobey Maguire will be playing Bobby Fischer in the upcoming movie about Fischer, Pawn Sacrifice. (source)

On a related topic, world champion Backgammon player Tim Holland passed away. (source and further info) After Backgammon fell from popularity, Holland moved to Bridge, which he played until the end of his life.

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Here is the TED talk. Although her research is primarily with WoW and MMORPGs, applicability is general to all games. Epic win.

Jane. World Without Oil. Evoke.

Bonus: A TED video on the importance of play from 2008/9, in case you missed it:

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Harrisburg, PA: Lawmakers testify that games played at meals on taxpayers’ expense were not gambling games but Spades and Hearts and so on. (source)

Tampa, FL: The Seminole tribe were not allowed to run banked (as opposed to non-banked) card games as of two years ago and continued to do so. They’re being sued by some people who lost money at these games. Although they are immune to lawsuits, there is special dispensation to sue anyone over gambling losses. Or something like that. (source has disappeared from site)

Berlin, Germany: Armed robbers stole $200,000 from a poker tournament, part of the European Poker Tour. (source)

Port Charlotte, FL: Police arrest management of All In.Magic Players Club for running illegal card games (the policeman sat in several games and won). (source)

Milville, NJ: Man threatens a woman at a card game with a lighter shaped like a gun. (source)

Chicago, IL: Man stabs a woman to death at an early morning card game. (source)

Cleveland, OH: Man shoots and robs another man at a dice game. (source)

LaFollette, TN: Police officer pistol-whips a man with his gun and points his gun at him when the man argues with him over money at a card game. (source)

Little Rock, AS: One man accused of shooting another over a game of Dominoes. (source)

Wichita, KS: Man buys crack cocaine using Monopoly money. (source) I don’t know who’s stupider: the seller for accepting Monopoly money, or the buyer for accepting an invitation to the seller’s house a few days later (the buyer was beat up after arriving at the house).

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WonderChess, by Wonderchess, is Chess where the pieces are hollow and so can contain prizes or rewards. For instance, capture an opponent’s piece, open the piece, and find a jelly bean.

The also make Go, Checkers, a word game, and now a memory game.

(hat tip)

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Hot news of game sales.

Barnes & Noble brick-and-mortar stores are running significant sales on some of their remaining holiday stock of board games. Note that not all games are on sale, but if you look around you should find a table or two of games with red stickers. Last night, I purchased Masters of Venice, Travel Blokus, and Time After Time for 75 percent off! I understand that tomorrow prices might be lowered to $2 per game. Of course, stock will vary by store and is very limited. But if you hurry up, I left you several copies of Wits & Wagers, Red November, and a variety of Goliath Games in the Rockville, Maryland shop.

Besting even the Barnes & Noble discount, White Wolf is celebrating Read an E-Book Week (did you know that was this week?) by offering a PDF copy of the World of Darkness Rulebook (normally $25) for FREE!

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Marcelo Figueroa discusses his ideas on how to start a game company.

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Mary Couzin is the brains and muscle behind the fastest-growing and perhaps most important game convention in the United States, the Chicago Toy and Game Fair, aka CHI-TAG. There are long-established trade fairs for toys and games, such as the ones in New York or Dallas, as well as player conventions for hobby games, such as Gen-Con and Origins. What there wasn’t, until Mary came along, is an American game fair – classics, mainstream, and hobby – for families, such as the one held yearly in Essen.

Mary started out as a game designer. Through the course of marketing her own games, she met other lone designers who were reinventing the wheel in terms of finding suppliers, dealing with contracts, and trying to market their games, and whose power as individuals was rather weak. She formed Discover Games in 1997 as a cooperative project to collect the wisdom of these designers and to market the group’s games as a group. Rio Grande Games and R&R Games are sample companies that got their start through Discover Games.

Mary drew her inspiration for CHI-TAG from Essen, which she attended in 2000. She spent a few years trying to build up support in the gaming community. Early support came from Rio Grande Games, R&R Games, and Out of the Box Publishing (a Chicago-based company), who formed the core of her first event in 2003.

The 2009 fair had 11,000 visitors, support from major game industry players such as Hasbro, celebrity guests such as Daryl Hannah (pimping her line of board games), and important people you’ve never heard of, such as Reuben Klamer, the inventor of Hasbro’s edition of The Game of Life. The fair also had sit downs with the publishers, toy and game awards, and a whole lot of family-friendly entertainment.

In person, Mary is amazingly sweet and charming. Yet beneath that sweetness and charm lies the determination to forge a national convention out of nothing that now has major entertainment players (yeah, bigger than Hasbro or Mattel) coming to her to find out how they can participate.

She has also founded initiatives for games in education.

Mary Couzin and Yehuda Berlinger

Mary Couzin and Yehuda Berlinger

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With a license from World Wildlife Fund, and 5 percent of sales going to that conservation organization, Terra-Toys has launched a line of traditional games and puzzles featuring threatened habitats. The products are made in China but certified from sustainable resources by the Forrest Stewardship Council (FSC).

Congo Basin Chess

Panda Tumblin’ Tower

Birds of the Amazon Backgammon

Cheetah Dominoes

Elephant & Tiger Checkers

Madagascar 4-in-a-Row

Borneo & Sumatra Ludo

Salamanders & Ladders

Crane Pick-Up Sticks

Amur Chinese Checkers

Turtle Tic-Tac-Toe

Animal Playing Cards

Polar Bear Labyrinth

8-in-1 Games Compendium (includes: chess, checkers, backgammon, ludo, pick-up sticks, salamanders & ladders, playing cards)

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Solomon Islands: Policeman jailed for indecent assault on nine-year old girl last year. He used a card game and candy to lure her. (source)

Clinton, SC: One man shoots another who won’t pay at a card game. (source)

Spartanburg, SC: Two men rob a house card game. (source)

Fort Wayne, IN: The management of The Poker Palace, which was allegedly running card games for charity, was actually taking all of the money for themselves. (source)

El Paso, TX: Attempted drug smuggling inside a Chess board. (source)

Sacramento, CA: Attempted drug smuggling inside a Dominoes case. (source)

Chicago: One man stabs another to death at a card game. (source)

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The DeLand Chess Park in Florida is nearing completion, despite all efforts by cooperating partners. (source) Artist Jill Cannady is painting a vast Chess-themed mural for the park. (source)

South African president Jacob Zuma presented the British Queen with a South African Chess set, only to discover that Nelson Mandela had presented Prince Philip with a nearly identical set 14 years earlier. (source) If only that were his biggest problem.

Obset:

Jacqueline Bardner Smith, who makes items for the Franklin Mint collection, crafted a lovely Alice and Wonderland Chess set.  Check source for picture. (source)

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