JESS: JxJ - Gaming at open air

From 17th to 20th May, l’Ascensió Fair was celebrated in Granollers, a village near Barcelona. It was an important commercial fair. In the main area, there were different stands of local shops, or stands with typical foods of the region. There was a second area with attractions and out-door activities (as old car exhibition, equitation, etc.).

And between these two areas, there was – for the first time – a sub-fair dedicated to gaming. It was the JugarxJugar Fair.

Oriol Comas i Coma, game enthusiast, game author and an habitual character of these Spanish Gaming Tales, has been the game fair director and main organizer. JugarxJugar (Jugar means To Play) had a big tent dedicated to tournaments, another big tent for free boardgame playing, and an outdoor space for game shop stands – the weather was lovely on these particular days in May – outdoors on the green grass, the Scandinavian games Mölkly and Kubb were also being enjoyably played.

There were different game activities every day in the JxJ fair.

In the tournament tent, the Spanish Carcassonne Championship was celebrated on Saturday morning. After some rounds, four players were in the final. Three of them were from JESTA club, a boardgame association from Valencia. They were in Granollers with their Giant Carcassonne – a beautiful big homemade version of the game, to play on the ground. They joked about that: _ After playing with our giant heavy version, to play with the much lighter normal game is very easy.

Pep Rodrigo Canales (of JESTA club) was the winner. He will be the Spanish player in the Carcassonne World Championship in the Essen fair in October.

The World Championship of Scrabble in Catalonian was the other big tournament of the fair. The Catalan language is spoken in Catalonia, a region in the north-east of Spain. Scrabble has a strong tradition there (relatively to other parts of Spain). Some months before, different classificatory tournaments were played. Only the best players were in Granollers in a very well organized tournament.

After nine Scrabble rounds of matches one vs. one, the two best players played the final match. Like in a chess tournament, the playing was watched simultaneously on a big gameboard. The numerous public whispered about every tile played and every word created on the board.

Finally, Joan Ramón Manchado was the winner. He was the favourite from the beginning of the tournament. He is three-times champion of the world of Scrabble in Spanish, and he had played twice the world final of Scrabble in Catalonian. Now, he is the world champion of Scrabble in two languages, Spanish and in Catalan. In the prize ceremony, politician authorities and media were there.

In the free-gaming tent - the JxJ real playing base -, it was possible to find games and people to play, mainly people coming through the BSK, an important Spanish boardgame forum on Internet – They also organized a big fun dinner on Saturday night.

BSK’s dinner

There were also families and children playing in the free-gaming tent.

That is the kind of people who went to the Fair of Granollers (remember; a commercial traditional fair). Skill games, like Palazzo Paletti, Tumbling Dice, Loopin’Louie, MaxiBamboleo, PitchCar, Carrom or Crokinole were the favourites there.

Spectacular home-made version of Circus Maximus, by Jordi Roca

The JxJ fair closed at 21:00, but gaming didn’t stop. Homoludicus (or laPCra on the net) is a real game shop (there are only few in Spain), and it is located in Granollers. Gaming fanatics moved there by night, thanks to the hospitable owner.

It was surprising how many game authors and how many game prototypes were in the JxJ game. The reasons for all these game prototypes there was the 1st. Competition of Game Design of Granollers. It began three months ago, and finally the prize for the author of the winning game was handed in during the JxJ fair. The winning game was El Mercado de Tlatelolco (Tlatelolco Market), designed by Victor Melo – but we will talk about this game design competition in the next Spanish Gaming Tale.

Prototypes, protptypes, and more

So, many of the games and authors who participate in the competition, and some others, were there showing their games.

We had a very good time playing in Granollers. A real gaming and boardgaming event, in the middle of a general commercial fair opened to all kinds of people. A good way to spread the fun gaming hobby in our society.

¡Nos jugamos!

You can read here a longer review about the Jugar x Jugar Fair (in Spanish).

Next chapter: The 1st Game Design Competition l’Ascesió of Granollers.

© 2007 Jesús Torres Castro

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