DK Arts & Entertainment: Games
A game is a competition between two or more people who play to a set of rules. A player may need skill, as with chess, or rely on the luck of the dice. Games are for the fun of the players or to entertain an audience.
It is thought that chess began in China or India around 1,400 years ago. From there it spread to North Africa and eventually to Europe. The modern form of chess emerged in the 16th century and remains one of the world’s most popular games. Today, computers can be programmed to play chess against humans.
Big companies employ workers to invent new games, but many games are invented by ordinary people with a good idea. An unemployed architect thought up Scrabble in 1931. Monopoly was invented in 1933 during the Great Depression by an American salesman. The dice game Yahtzee was invented in 1956 by a Canadian couple to play on their yacht.