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Courtesy of New Media Club

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Tournament end celebration! Bonus: a very tired Davis

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Tournament end celebration! Bonus: a very tired Davis

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The nature and progress of the Board Club

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The nature and progress of the Board Club

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Although board games are simply just, games, they serve a few roles in human culture and society. They are a form of cultural expression, a teaching aid or a method to relax. Nontheless, I have felt that Board Games were overlooked in favour of other pursuits like sports and the arts; I wanted to start a CCA, but I had to settle for a SIP due to the lack of teachers.

Our purpose was simple, to teach board games and cultivate a board game culture. Although it was mostly friends and classmates who were our participants, I am still glad that we were able to encourage them to learn new games and play them. We held session every fortnight, where we hold a lesson and then we play; this year we covered International Chess, CrazyHouse Chess and WeiQi. Evian also taught XiangQi in an impromptu lesson.

We had some ups and downs, we held MI's first ever chess tournament, we created manuals for unfamiliar players, and we managed to improve people's skills. But we have had sessions that no one showed up, clashes with CCAs using our venue, overestimating the tournament turnout in hindsight, and that incident where I had to ban a volunteer for punching me. These were moments worth reflecting, not because they were failures, but opportunities to innovate and do better.

Despite the fact that we will have less time next year, I am willing to renew the Club for a second year. I believe that we will be the spark that sets off the movement for a Mindsports CCA.  If I would never be able to start a CCA in my years here at MI, I do hope that I will find a worthy successor that exceeds me to pass the torch. However, I have concerns that the Club will become too European and Chinese dominant, as these board games tend to be the most popular in Singapore. I want to teach Malay, Indian and other ethnicities' board games as well, such as Carrom, Main Chator(Malay Chess) and Shogi. I can only hope that we will have the resources to do so, not just financially, but books on what skills to improve and tactics and strategies to learn. May this never be wishful thinking.

~Davis K. Tan
President