Hello BarCampLA-ers…ites…ryans? Hmm…

Most of you were asleep, hung-over, or checking out the extremely neato hack-your-disposable-digital-camera presentation, so you missed my demo of this neat little game called abstract chess.

Abstract Chess is a fun game we used to play once upon a time in college, and it spread a little but never caught on the way werewolves did. I’ve been meaning to do up a nice presentation to introduce more people to it, and make some Abstract Chess sets as well, and BarCamp LA provided a viable deadline (and 3 person audience!)

You can jump ahead to the next post if you like–it’s got the whole text from the powerpoint, so all you need is an index card and some crayons… Or read on for a little more rambling and reflection.

Just to dispell any mis-notions, Abstract Chess is not a typical BarCamp theme thing. It’s not wired, it’s not java-tastic, it doesn’t narrowcast a MUD over WiMax, but you could use a soldering iron on it…

And it’s not very chess like, except for one superficial similarity (turns begin when you touch a piece and end when you let it go…) and a Chomskian deep structure analogy (if I may be permitted a truly sophomoric statement).

But Abstract Chess is kind of very Web 2.o; it’s super-duper participatory and democratic. Yep, I’ll stick with that.

It’s an art game for people with no art ability, and a competition game for people who like to collaborate but also like to be (or just see) a winner. And it’s a great way to use stolen office supplies.

Thanks to the Jeff and Jennifer and Ace (?) who played, and the handful who might have looked at one of the slides and thought they were pretty.

I’ve given up loading the PPT as a wordpress file for the moment…

But all the text is contained in the first post here (the rules), and all the images (sans cropping and rotation) are in the flickr stream.

As for the vast cultural potential of this little game we used to play at UCSD and has migrated to Vassar and Oakland and other parts, well, let’s not go overboard. It’s a fun game you won’t regret trying–I like how that looks so let’s leave it at that, agreed?