Colloquium III
Board Game Studies
Colloquium XVI
BOOK OF ABSTRACTS
University of Azores
LudusAsso iation
Universityof Azores
Organizing Committee:
AldaCarvalho (ISEL,Portugal)
Ana Paula Garrão(University ofAzores, Portugal)
Carlos Santos (ISEC, Portugal)
Jorge Nuno Silva (Universityof Lisbon,Portugal)
Margarida Dias (UniversityofAzores, Portugal)
Ri ardo CunhaTeixeira (Universityof Azores,Portugal)
S ienti Committees:
Re reationalMathemati s Board GameStudies
AldaCarvalho, Portugal Alexde Voogt,USA
Carlos Pereira dosSantos, Portugal Edite Alberto, Portugal
Colin Wright, UK FernandaFrazão, Portugal
David Singmaster,UK Irving Finkel, UK
IldaPerez, Portugal Jorge Nuno Silva,Portugal
JoãoPedroNeto, Portugal Lídia Fernandes, Portugal
Jorge Nuno Silva,Portugal Thierry Depaulis,Fran e
Ri ardo CunhaTeixeira,Portugal Ulri hShädler, Switzerland
Ri hard Nowakowski, Canada
RobinWilson, UK
Re reational Mathemati s is a problemati expression. For some people,
like most professional mathemati ians, Mathemati s is lots of fun; but for
others,like some students, Mathemati s an bea nightmare.
Histori ally, we know that some mathemati al resear h topi s are deeply
linked to puzzles and games, probability theory emerged from the analysis
of han e games,graph theorywasborn whenEulerproved thatyou annot
rossallthe BridgesofKönigsbergjuston e. Manyotherexamples ometo
mind.
Our Colloquium will be a Show and Tell of bright pearls of Mathemati s,
with varied levels of sophisti ation, entertaining many audien es. Itsmain
goal is to foster mathemati al appre iation, an important step if we are to
seeimprovements in its pra ti e.
UniversityofAzoresandLudusAsso iationorganizetheRe reational
Math-emati s ColloquiumIII.
TheInternational So ietyfor Board GameStudies holdsyearly olloquia in
whi hs holars,universityprofessors,museum urators, historians,
ar haeol-ogists, psy hologists, mathemati ians, game inventors, olle tors andothers
share their resear h results on board games. Previous BGS olloquia have
beenheldintheNetherlands,Italy,Switzerland,Spain,Germany,USA,UK,
Brazil,Austria, Portugal, Israel,Fran e, Belgium.
The University of Azores and the Ludus Asso iation organize the Board
GameStudies Colloquium XVI.
Both olloquia will be hostedbythe Universityof Azores.
http://ludi um.org/ev/rm/13
http://ludi um.org/ev/bgs/13
Wednesday, 3rd April, amphitheatre C
8:30 Wel omeand registration
9:15 Opening Session
9:30 Understanding ubi di e development: re ent experimentalresults(RM+BGS)
AlexVoogt,Ameri anMuseumofNaturalHistory
10:30 Countingwith ounters: Gerbert's aba us (RM+BGS)
JorgeNuno Silva,UniversityofLisbon
11:00 Coee-Break
11:30 An update to the multilated hessboard (RM+BGS)
ColinWright,LiverpoolMathemati alSo iety
12:30 Quadratum (RM+BGS)
Helena Melo,UniversityofAzores&CMATI
13:00 Breakforlun h
14:30 Solving dotty problems-an introdu tion to graph theory
Robin Wilson,OpenUniversity
15:30 Mathemati sof so er
AldaCarvalho,ISEL&CEMAPRE/ISEG
16:00 Coee-Break
16:30 The Humble-Ehrhends trianglemistery
JorgeBues u,UniversityofLisbon
17:00 Symmetry groups: identifyingpatterns in Azorean heritage
VeraMoniz,Universityof Azores
17:30 The Golden Ratio -from Eu lid to Almada Negreiros
CarlotaSimões,UniversityofCoimbra
18:30 Break Time
9:30 Piet Hein& the murder of nim(RM+BGS)
ThanePlambe k,Counterwave,in
10:30 What is a good board game? (RM+BGS)
CarlosSantos,ISEC
11:00 Coee-Break
11:30 Three new math-gamesfor experien ingthe interplaybetween
algebra, geometry,and symmetry(RM+BGS)
OliverLabs,UniversitatdesSaarlandes
12:30 An ientegyptian board games: an histori al a ount (RM+BGS)
JoaquimEuri oNogueira,CELC&FCT-UNL
13:00 Breakforlun h
15:00 So ial
Friday, 5th April,amphitheatre C(ex eptthe Opento All sessions)
9:00 Order in the ranks (RM+BGS)
PedroJ.Freitas,UniversityofLisbon
10:00 Coee-Break
10:30 Mathemati al ir us (Open to All)
LudusAsso iation
11:10 Presentationof Mathemati sofPlanet Earth 2013(Open to All)
CarlotaSimões,UniversityofCoimbra,AnaPaulaGarrão,UniversityofAzores
11:20 Presentationof Mathemati sofPlanet Earth 2013(Open to All)
JorgeNuno Silva,JoséFran is oRodrigues,UniversityofLisbon
11:40 Presentationof Mathemati sofPlanet Earth 2013(Open to All)
Ri ardoTeixeira,UniversityofAzores
12:00 Magi show (Open to All)
LennartGreen,WorldChampion lose-up/ ardMagi ian
13:00 Breakforlun h
14:30 Lewis Carroll in Numberland
StephanieCabral,UniversityofAzores
16:00 Coee-Break
16:30 Treason strategies
JoãoCabral,UniversityofAzores
17:00 Jogo doparalelo
RaquelFaria,UniversityofAzores
17:30 Can mathemati al exhibitionsbe re reational?
JoséFran is oRodrigues,UniversityofLisbon
18:00 Contest Um onto que ontas
Helena Melo,UniversityofAzores&CMATI
18:30 Interesting Announ ements (RM+BGS)
JorgeNuno Silva,CarlosSantos,LudusAsso iation
19:30 Conferen eDinner
Saturday, 6th April, amphitheatre C
9:30 Game pro ling(RM+BGS)
Ri hardNowakowski,DalhaousieUniversity
10:30 Why Zermelo'sTheorem is alled Zermelo'sTheorem ? (RM+BGS)
LisaRougetet,UniversityofS ien e andTe hnologyofLille
11:00 Coee-Break
11:30 Vanishingarea puzzles(RM+BGS)
DavidSingmaster,RetiredprofessorofLondonSouthBankUniversity
12:30 Lasker and mathemati s(RM+BGS)
Jurgen Stigter,TWA
13:00 Breakforlun h
14:30 Turning thelights outon graphs
AntónioMa hiavelo,UniversityofOporto
15:30 Combinatorialgames and omputability
AdRidder, UniversityAmsterdam
egydevelopment.
Thiselement ofhumanutilityandpedagogi aldevelopment isin orporated
psy hoae tive ownthis varietyof gamesthat require the on entration of
thosewho pra ti eitto getthe win.
Inour paper we analyzethe games andrelate to a tivitiesthatgave rise to
its urrent appli ation and asare reational andedu ational tool.
The story of Harm van Veen andhis game TRANSET (BGS)
Fred Horn,Games Inventor
Early in 2011,during one of my regular visits to Haagse kringloopwinkels
Re y le-Shops in the Hague looking for Games, I did nd a small box,
wrapped in plasti -foil and lled with wooden blo ks, whi h blo ks looked
likegame-pie es. Iwas uriousenoughtopi kitupandexaminetheboxand
to my surprise at the ba kside a paper was visible with game-rules, giving
the Rulesfor ato meunknowngame : TRANSET. For nearlynothing (less
than1Euro)Ibe ameitsnewownerandwhenathomeIwasreally urious
about what Ihad justbought!
Quadratum (RM+BGS)
Helena Melo,Universityof Azores&CMATI
Sandra Vinagre, Universityof Evora &CIMA/UE
Quadratumisa ombinatorialgameinthreedimensions,whi h anbeplayed
existing ubes onthe board, with atleasttwo ofits fa esin orresponden e
(ex eptthe rstmove), and amaximum of ve fa esin onta t. The game
endswhenone ofthe players an not pla ea ube onthe board,the winner
beingthelastplayertoplay. Sin eitisagameinthreedimensions,itadmits
severallevels,butinthis rstversionthe ubesareallpla edovertheboard.
Somewinning strategieswill be explored.
Contest Um onto que ontas (RM)
Helena Melo,Universityof Azores&CMATI
Sandra Vinagre, Universityof Evora &CIMA/UE
The ontest Um onto que ontas (A tale that a ounts) is open to all
students of publi and private s hools of all ountry, from the rst level of
rst i le to the lastlevel ofse ondary. The ompetition onsistsof writing
and illustratinga tale involving mathemati al ontents. One ofthe goals is
topromote habitsofreadingandwritingin studentsandtopromote
oordi-nationbetweenvariousdis iplines,stimulatingtheimagination. Parti ipants
an ompetein oneof eight ategories,a ording totheir levelof edu ation,
inindividualmodalityor inteam,with amaximum offourelements. Inthe
evaluationoftales,mathemati al ontents, thedomainoflanguage,
original-ity, reativity, logi al narrative,amongothers, will be valued.
Treason GameStrategies (RM)
João Cabral, University ofAzores
The Treason Game had its debut in the Re reational Mathemati s
Collo-quiumII,and nowitisplayed inHighS hoolsbystudents. Butitisalways
a game in ontinuous evolution due to its ri hness in strategies and dire t
appli ation to the tea hing of isometries in S hools. We present the study,
exploration and dis ussion of some of the strategies used by players of this
gameaswell their onne tionwith isometries.
An ient Egyptian board games: an histori al a ount (RM+BGS)
Joaquim Euri o Nogueira, CELC &FCT-UNL
Inthis talkI will examine in detailsome histori al and religiousaspe ts of
the most important games (Senet, Mehen, 58 holes, Tjau and Seega) that
wereinvogueinthekingdomofpyramidsinthemillenniabeforeChrist. The
rstfour(Senet, Mehen,58 holes,Tjau)werera inggames,with the han e
fa tor in uen ing the movement of the pie esand where several squares of
theboardgame aretrapped;thelastone(Seega)isastrategygame, possibly
