Nine Men's Morris is a true classic - having been played at least as far back as the time of the Roman Empire. I've also heard of the board being found carved on the tops of ancient Egyptian temples, probably by builders who would play by way of a break. In some European travels that I did a couple of years ago I came across this game in various locations in Scotland, England and Germany, and I've added at the bottom of this post the post I put up during those travels. The set in the picture is the boxed version we have on our shelves. I no longer remember where we got it or when, but I'm pretty sure we picked it up at a garage sale or thrift store early in our marriage.
Each player has nine "men" to place on the board. The game consists of three phases: placing pieces, moving pieces, and "flying." Three men in a row forms a mill; if you are able to accomplish this either by placing or moving, you get to remove one piece belonging to the opponent (though you cannot remove a piece that is part of a mill). The winner is the one who gets his opponent down to having only two pieces left on the board. (Details - You can only form a mill vertically or horizontally, not diagonally. And once you are down to only 3 pieces, on your turn you may "fly" one of your pieces to any spot on the board rather than being limited to the normal "slide one space" move.)
David and I played tonight. Above is a picture of a stage partway through our first game. Below are pictures of the end of both games that we played. David beat me soundly both times! (I was playing green - obviously.)
We do have another version of this on our shelves. It's a version contained inside a book with 14 other classic games. We took this book with us on our 30th anniversary trip to Cancun last year. We hadn't played it in years at that point, and it was fun to rediscover it. The first two or three games we played made it feel like tic-tac-toe - as if everything was just obvious and would end in a cat's game. But after playing 2 or 3 times we began to notice some strategy and started playing more wisely, at which point the game became very challenging and very addicting. It is truly a game of pure strategy, and it is a classic for a reason.
Here's the book containing this one and 14 other classics. It will show up again on this blog a number of times for sure.
And, yes, Cancun does afford beautiful Caribbean waters, lovely beaches, amazing pools, sailing, snorkeling, fine dining, and fascinating Mayan ruins, but sometimes we just stayed in the hotel room playing games, 'cause that's how we roll! (We did get out a bit, as you can see.)
What follows contains excerpts from my mathematical travel sabbatical blog of spring 2016. As I mentioned, I just came across this game EVERYWHERE. I hadn't been expecting that at all, so I created that post about it and am sharing it here too.
At the very beginning of my trip when I was visiting Jedburgh Abbey in Scotland and I saw an archaeological exhibition of a Nine Men's Morris game found at the site, I took a picture of it just for my own self . . . because of my love of games and my family's love of games.
And then, I saw another Nine Men's Morris board at the home of Sir Isaac Newton in Woolsthorpe, England - not original, of course, but there it was in Newton's living room!
The day after my arrival in London I went to a math lecture on Turing and von Neumann put on by Gresham College at the Museum of London, and I saw another Nine Men's Morris Board that had been excavated from early times in London. I am shocked as I go through my pictures tonight to see I didn't take a photograph of it, but in it's place I'll post this picture from that museum of dice from centuries ago in London - just to illustrate how games have always played an important role in human culture.
Then yesterday I was at Hampton Court Palace, and in the Great Waiting Chamber from the Tudor Era, what did I see but another Nine Men's Morris game in the midst of this glorious splendour!
And then today I was in the Tower of London, and there was Nine Men's Morris again in the room set up as a replica of that of Kind Edward I.
There is no real relationship here to the math history I'm studying for my sabbatical and this game, BUT when parents of young children ask me (as happens so often!) what they can best do to help their kids be ready to be solid in mathematics, I always encourage them to play strategy games with their kids. Such games are all about problem-solving and creative thinking, which is so necessary in mathematics - and by "mathematics" I don't mean merely arithmetic and number crunching - I mean solution and proof and critical thinking and true problem solving and creativity and
Mathematics.
It's also the case that I choose a different strategy game every semester for my math tutor training sessions - a game that I ask the tutors to focus on all semester to see if they can find any mathematical principles relating to it that could ensure a win for them every time or at least an advantage. It's a way of getting them to stretch their "mathematical muscles" outside the classroom and more flexibly, in broader context. Nine Men's Morris may need to be my next game pick for tutor training.
Anyway, Nine Men's Morris keeps popping up everywhere I look, so it gets a post, though that wasn't my intent with my first picture. Now I'm eager to pull out my Nine Men's Morris board when I get home so that I can play it again. It's been a long time, but it's clearly a classic that I need to revisit!!
LATER ADDITION:
And yet another one! This time it isn't in a museum but in a game store in Heidelberg, Germany.
And yet again another one! This one was in my stop after Heidelberg - Gottingen, Germany!
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