Games Played Around the World
On Friday, April 19,1991, Claudia Zaslavsky spoke at the national NCTM conference on three-in-a-row games, one in a series of talks by ISGEm members on "Ethnomathematics and Games Played Around the World." The talk was based on her book "Tic Tac Toe and Other ThreeIn-A-Row Games, From Ancient Egypt to the Modern Computer" (Crowell, 1982). Besides their interest for students, games are valuable in the classroom in fostering critical thinking and cooperative learning. Children can be encouraged to help their opponents to improve their strategies, thus making the game more challenging for both players.

The familiar game of Tic-Tac-Toe was analyzed. Although the first two moves can be made in 9x8, or 72, different ways on a fixed board, the number can be reduced to 12 when one considers the symmetry of the square. As for strategy, provided neither player makes an error, the first player to go cannot lose and the second player cannot win.

Zaslavsky reviewed several versions of three-in-a-row games, beginning with the gameboard incised on the roofing slab of an ancient Egyptian temple about 3300 B.P. (before the present) - Tapatan in the Philippines, Shisima in Kenya, Tsoro Yematatu played on a triangular board in Zimbabwe, Noughts and Crosses in England, and the many European versions called "Mill," starting with the game introduced into Spain by Arabic-speaking Moors from northern Africa and recorded in the first European book of games about the year 1200.

The most complex versions require that each player use 12 counters. Girls in Sri Lanka play one variation, while another is popular in Lesotho, a tiny country surrounded by South Africa. An instructor in Lesotho found that middle grade students who were experienced in playing the game scored significantly higher in certain standardized geometric tasks than their non-playing colleagues.

It is interesting to note that among the computers designed by Charles Babbage, but never actually built, was a tic-tac-toe machine.

The session concluded with audience participation in comparing two versions of the game Picaria, played by the Pueblo Indians of the U.S. Southwest, and probably introduced to them by the Spanish Conquistadors. The participants could not agree on which was the better version, but all declared that it was fun! Alverna Champion of Grand Valley State University spoke on "Board Games of African Children." The games presented were Arrangements, Magic Squares, Networks, Achi, Kalan, N'Tchuba, Senat, Seega, along with one string puzzle. The audience had fun playing Arrangements. Champion provided suggestions for making inexpensive gameboards. The session was well-attended with many questions and answers interspersed throughtout.