A group of senior high school students at the American British Academy in Muscat set a new record for computer processor built from dominoes. With 15,000 dominoes, they constructed a 5-bit adder that can sum numbers up to 63. [For a fascinating explanation of how this works, I suggest this video from the person who built the 4-bit adder.]

Keisuke Fukuchi of Japan took home the trophy at the World Othello Championship held in Prague, Czech Republic. At 11 years of age, he’s the youngest champion ever in the tournament’s 42 year history. On his flight home via All Nippon Airways, a congratulations was announced by the pilot, Kunihiko Tanida, the previous record holder for youngest Othello champion (which he had held since 1982).

The World Chess Hall of Fame in St. Louis reclaimed the record for the world’s largest Chess piece. It previously held the record with a 14 foot tall king from 2012 to 2014 but was then eclipsed by a school in the town of Kalmthout, Belgium. The new record-making piece is a 20 foot tall black Staunton king with a base of 9 feet 2 inches and a weight of 10,860 pounds. It was hand carved from African Sapele Mahogany.

Magnus Carlsen of Norway successfully defended his World Chess Champion title against Fabiano Caruana of the United States by intentionally playing for a draw in standard time controls and then winning three straight in rapid tie-breaks. At the World Rapid Chess Championship, though, Carlsen tied with three others for second place. The winner in that event was Daniil Dubov of Russia. Following that was the World Blitz Chess Championship, where Carlsen again came out on top.

With a win at the London Chess Classic, Hikaru Nakamura of the United States secured first place in the multi-tournament Grand Chess Tour series.

Among artificial entities, Chess engine Stockfish won both Rapid and Blitz categories of the Chess.com Computer Chess Championship. Houdini came in second in Rapid, where the final match took place over 200 games, and Komodo came in second in Blitz, where the final was 300 games.

Nigel Richards won his fourth World Scrabble Championship with a final game score of 575-452, that achieved with such words as “groutier” (68 points), “zonular” (100 points), and “phenolic” (84 points). His opponent managed “maledict” for 95 points.

A new edition of The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary makes legal play out of “sheeple”, “ew”, “OK”, “yowza”, and “zomboid”. It also adds another q-without-a-u word, “qapik”, a monetary unit from Azerbaijan.

Javier Dominguez of Spain, who last year finished in second place, managed a win in this year’s finals, taking home $100,000 and the trophy for Magic: The Gathering World Champion.

Akiko Yazawa of Japan, cancer survivor, won her second World Backgammon Championship title.

Topping a field of 76 contestants from 46 countries, Quetzal Hernandez of Mexico won the Catan World Championship in Cologne, Germany.

Elena Short of Ukraine finished first in both the women’s classic and women’s blitz sections of the World Championship in Draughts 64.

Wu Yiming, 11 years old, of China became the country’s youngest female professional Go player.

In late December 2017, thirteen year-old Que Jianyu appeared on Chinese television and solved three Rubik’s Cubes while continuously juggling them, and did so in a world record 5 minutes 6.61 seconds. Then in December of this year, he went on Italian television and broke his own record by just over 4 seconds. Between these two events, he also broke speed records for solving three Rubik’s Cubes simultaneously with hands and feet (1 minutes 36.39 seconds) and solving a single Rubik’s cube while hanging upside down (15.84 seconds).

At the Cube for Cambodia event in Melbourne, Australia, Feliks Zemdegs solved a 3×3 Rubik’s Cube in a world record 4.22 seconds.

Max Park of the United States set four new Rubik’s Cube world records. He solved:

• 4×4 in 18.42 seconds and 5×5 in 37.28 seconds at SacCubing in Roseville, California.
• 6×6 in 1 minute 13.82 seconds at WCA Asian Championship in New Taipei City, Taiwan.
• 7×7 in 1 minute 47.89 seconds at West Coast Cubing Tour in Fresno, California.

Several new world records were set for solving Rubik’s Cubes while blindfolded. At the end of the year, the records stand as follows:

• 16.55 seconds for 3×3 blindfolded, set by Max Hilliard at the Puget Sound NxNxN in Tacoma, Washington.
• 1 minute 26.41 seconds for 4×4 blindfolded set by Kaijun Lin at the Please Be Quiet Beijing in Beijing, China.
• 3 minutes 1.01 seconds for 5×5 blindfolded set by Stanley Chapel‎ at the Shaker Fall in Shaker Heights, Ohio.

Grégoire Pfennig of Belfort, France built the largest order working Rubik’s Cube puzzle, 33×33. Imagine how long it would take to solve that!

A group of four in Moscow set a world record for the number of escape rooms attended in 1 day, 22.

At the World Rummikub Championship in Jerusalem, Kohei Numajiri of Japan came in first place, Sasha Erlich of Israel came in second, and Matthijs Delvers of Netherlands third.

Ankush Khandelwal of the U.K. won the Pentamind World Championship, a tournament that consists of matches in Quoridor, 7 Wonders, Acquire, Liar’s Dice, and Chess 960.

Brain Games held its first ICECOOL World Championship event at BaltiCon in Riga, Latvia, where Khanh Hung Dong of Canada took home the trophy and a prize of a weekend for two at Snow Village in Lapland.

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Pathfinder enters the mobile CCG market with Pathfinder Duels, a new head-to-head battling game with simultaneous turns and cards decks built around the iconic characters of the Pathfinder RPG. Available now for Android and iOS.

Dire Wolf Digital has added a solo scenario for Clank! In Space! to its Renegade Game Studios Companion App (Android, iOS).

Hasbro has launched a game-show style version of Trivial Pursuit played with Amazon Echo Buttons.

Metro, Queen Games’ tile-laying title about Paris rail-lines, has arrived on iOS and Android, with AI opponents and online play.

The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game materialized recently on Steam. Evil Hat and developer Hidden Achievement say that mobile versions will follow on the 7th.

Asmodee Digital put out a new version of Carcassonne with a 3D look to Steam and Android.

There’s also a new version of Catan in the electronic game space. Catan Universe is available for PC, Mac, iOS, and Android and allows cross-platform play. Previous mobile versions of Catan have been renamed Catan Classic and owners of those versions are eligible to receive certain content in Catan Universe for free.

Set in the “Catan universe” but not the traditional board game, Catan Stories is a new scenario-based text adventure game from Asmodee Digital (Android and iOS).

APBA Go, the online version of APBA Baseball, has added solitaire play.

Referring to it as “everybody’s favourite board game,” Ubisoft announced the release of Hasbro’s Monopoly on Nintendo Switch. The game includes three themed boards (Classic City, Amusement Park, Haunted) and dice rolls that players can feel with the Switch’s HD Rumble.

Also now on Nintendo Switch from Ubisoft is the card game Uno, with themes derived from video games, Rabbids, Just Dance, and Rayman.

Kinkajoo, which already produces a Rummikub game app, now has out a free Rummikub score tracker and timer (Android and iOS).

Other cardboard-to-computer ports:

• 7 Wonders to Android and iOS by Repos Productions.
• Renegade Game Studios’ Lotus to Android and iOS by Dire Wolf Digital.
• Tokaido to Steam (Windows & Mac) by Funforge.
• Hasbro’s Battleship to Facebook Messenger by CoolGames.
• Fowers Games’ Burgle Bros. and Paperback to Windows/Steam.

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As a themed variant, A Game of Thrones Catan plays a lot like the original. Terrain tiles produce resources that players can trade and use to build roads, settlements, and keeps. Subtitled “Brotherhood of the Watch”, though, the board in this version represents an area of land that belongs to the Brotherhood and is known as the Gift. Toward one end of the board is the wall. Behind it, miniature figures representing Wildlings slowly gather, eventually breaking through to fill sections of the Gift (making tiles unproductive).

Through the game, the players also have the opportunity to call on help from characters of the A Song of Ice and Fire fiction series, each with a special ability, such as trading resources or chasing off Wildlings.

One way to win A Game of Thrones Catan is, like in the original, be the first player to 10 victory points, mostly acquired through improvements in the Gift. Should the game, however, end prematurely with the Wildlings breaking through the wall three times, the winner and new Lord Commander is the player with the most guards remaining.

A Game of Thrones Catan, produced by Fantasy Flight Games, is now available at retail for $80.

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Fantasy Flight Games has announced a new Catan game based on George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels. A Game of Thrones Catan: Brotherhood of the Watch will have players settling and developing the Gift, an area of land donated by the Starks, while at the same time placing guards at the wall to defend against a raid by the Wildlings.

As in the original Settlers of Catan, players will gather and trade resources (lumber, brick, wool, grain, and ore), lose resources to the robber (a Wildling character), build roads and settlements, purchase development cards, and earn victory points. Ten victory points earns a player the win and title of Lord Commander. Or should the Wildlings manage to breach the wall three times, the position of Lord Commander immediately goes to the player who’s contributed the most guards.

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Scott Almes’ Heroes of Land, Air & Sea is much bigger than the Tiny Epic games he’s designed, but retains the epic-ness. In this 4X boardgame set in a fantasy world, 1-4 players try to take over as much as possible, collecting resources, building structures, and conquering regions. The base game from Gamelyn Games comes with four factions, the 5-6 player expansion comes with four more factions. The base game is a reward for a $79 pledge while a $139 pledge gets you that and the expansion next March. Is it already funded? Each box comes with 80 miniatures: of course it’s already funded.

Are you a fan of the series of games where villagers trying to uncover werewolves in their midst? You’ll want to check out Werewolf Coins by Home Run Games, where roles are stamped onto twenty-eight (base set: more added as stretch goals) different quarter-sized coins, fitting in a synthetic suede pouch. Um. That’s pretty much it. They’ll retail for $30 for the base set, but you can get one as a reward this summer for a $22 pledge to make the product happen. Will it happen? As I type this, they’ve blown past their goal by 2500%.

Dude. Ties. With d20s on them. Do I need to write more? A $15 pledge gets you a d20 tie in red, black, or blue in July. Again, already funded, with about $2500 of the $1000 needed to make this product happen. If Kaleb Mankey gets up to $3000 in backer support, they’ll add yet another color to the line. Unsurprisingly, we’re hoping for purple.

Looking to upgrade those wooden shapes in your games? Meeple Source (a past advertiser on Purple Pawn, although that doesn’t weigh into us highlighting them this week), has painted upgraded wooden tokens and custom-shaped pieces for games such as Camel Up, Pandemic, Colt Express, Above and Below, Catan, Carcassone, and more. Reward levels start with pledges as low as $10 for a single-color set for some games with expected delivery times of October and December of this year.

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Asmodee has acquired the Worldwide English-language licensed publishing, commercial and brand rights to Catan from Mayfair Games. They’ve created Catan Studio, a division dedicated to the development of the brand content for Catan.

There will be a transisiton period where Mayfair will continue to distribute the English version of Catan, after which Asmodee North America for the U.S. and its partners outside of the U.S. will handle distribution.

Stéphane Carville, CEO of Asmodee Group said: “I am very proud and honored that through this acquisition, we are becoming a major partner to Catan GmbH and the Teuber family, with whom we share common values and vision for Catan and for board games. Our commitment is to highly contribute alongside Catan GmbH and their partners in pursuing the growth of the Catan brand through our new studio, Catan Studio Inc. steered by Pete Fenlon and his team. With Catan we are expanding our IP portfolio with an absolutely iconic board game and brand, one that will join and strengthen the gaming experience we provide.”

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Is for you the board-gaming experience coming up short as a sensory experience? Syrinscape has you covered with a newly released sound-effects player for board games. The base player comes with “ooh”, “aah”, rolling dice, and other sounds for adding drama, mocking opponents, and underscoring victories.

Like the company’s Fantasy and Sci-Fi players designed for roleplaying games, the Syrinscape Board Game Player provides much greater flexibility than just looping a prerecorded track. Users can set a selection of sound elements to play in a randomized pattern or mix them manually on-the-fly.

The Syrinscape Board Game Player is available for PCs (Windows and Mac), as well as Android and iOS mobile devices. Soundsets featuring individual sounds and preprogrammed environments for Chess, Casino, and Soduku are included. Additional soundsets are available at $10 each for Catan from Mayfair Games and Spellcaster and Spike from R&R Games. With the Catan set comes sounds for sheep, the knight and robber, sawing wood, a city marketplace, and more. The Spellcaster set includes unique sounds, in male and female sorcerer versions, for each of the games’ spells. The Spike set has a theme song and the sounds of trains and cargo.

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There are only hours left in the Braille RPG Dice kickstarter campaign by 64 Oz. Games. Backing at $10 gets you one 3D-printed polyhedral die, while a $50 pledge will be rewarded with a full set of seven dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, and percentale — that’s a d10 marked in tens). This the company’s second kickstarter, following up on their “Board Games: Now Blind Accessible” braille-printed transparent sleeves for several popular hobby games. Stretch goals for Braille RPG Dice include allowing 64 Oz. Games to purchase a CNC router and a plastic thermoforming machine, which will be used on future manufacturing projects.

I’ve played several social bluffing hidden role games, but Secret Hitler looks like it’s a game that I’d want to bring out more than any other. Just launched, the game takes place in 1930’s Germany with two teams, the Fascists and the Liberals, trying to take control of the government. Similar to Werewolf and The Resistance, the rounds move rapidly. If I had a regularly-meeting large game group — you’ll need between 5 and 10 players for Secret Hitler — I’d throw down a $25 pledge to get a game of this as a reward.

Oh man, I am a sucker for a well-designed playing card deck and this week, I’ve got three that I’d like to showcase. First up is the Red Scarab and Blue Scarab decks, from Scott King. The Red deck is shaded line art on white while the Blue deck is more painterly on black. Jackson Robinson (from the Wasteland 2-inspired deck) has a set of limited edition Black Diamond Tally-Ho decks available. These cards are black with foil print. And lastly, Elite Playing Cards has a glamorously golden deck called Bicycle Chic.

Oh yeah, board games! Do you like Catan? Game Night Geek, LLC., offers up a Magnetic Catan Border. It’s six pieces of oak plywood (other types of wood available for upgraded costs) connected by those strong neodymium magnets to keep the tile island of Catan together while playing. It’s one of those so-simple-why-didn’t-I-think-of-it game accessory. But someone did, and these are rather affordable, starting at a $12 pledge level.

I’ve been using black foamcore to create custom component storage for some of my boardgames. However, these lasercut MDF Board Game Inserts by The Game Doctors are awfully tempting… What you do is pledge 10 Euro or more in shipping windows (all full right now, but they’ll be opening more slots as the campaign goes on) and when it’s over, you convert those pledges into whichever types of game insert you desire. I’m looking at the “Card” design to store my ever-growing Android: Netrunner collection (14 Euro + 5 per 10 additional dividers) or “Robi” for the Robinson Crusoe box (16 Euro, includes space for the Voyage of the Beagle expansion) or maybe “Dead” for my Dead of Winter game (18 Euro).

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The what?

According to a report from Variety, producer Gail Katz now owns the film and television rights to Klaus Teuber’s Catan (formerly Settlers of Catan).

“I’ve been wanting to see an adaptation of the game for years, ever since my Catan-obsessed college-aged kids introduced me to it,” Katz told Variety.  “The island of Catan is a vivid, visual, exciting and timeless world with classic themes and moral challenges that resonate today.  There is a tremendous opportunity to take what people love about the game and its mythology as a starting point for the narrative.”

My first thought is, “No way, this would be lame.”

However, it could be a pretty exciting movie if you imagine early settlers, trying to eek out a meager existence. Then, one particularly forward-thinking person decides to expand. Others follow his lead. Suddenly, war is breaking out over who is going to build the longest road.

I don’t know. It still sounds kind of lame. But, I’m not in the movie industry, so what do I know.

Katz’ producer credits include “Air Force One,” “Bicentennial Man,” “Outbreak,” and a few other big ticket movies. Plus, she took the executive producer role in a few episodes of “The Agency” and “Cashmere Mafia.”

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On display in New York, and at the same time making its way through distribution, was Flea Market ($21), the newest entry in Mayfair’s Fun Fair line. Flea Market is an auction game about buying low and selling high, but with a twist. Bids by individual players are, of a sort, fixed. That is, the players each roll two dice to determine both the priority of their bids and the prices they would have to pay—higher numbers go first but also have to pay more. As the item for sale in a round is selected randomly, the thing purchased by one player may end up resold to others (with the seller earning a bonus from the bank). The winner is the first player to turn a $24 stake in to $45.

Also on display by Mayfair were the rebranded Catan and a Catan Traveler Edition ($45, available in June).

UPDATE: As requested, here is a picture of the Catan cards:

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