Monopoly’s best fight for world title

Nicolo Falcone

Celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, Monopoly is one of the world’s favorite board games. It’s estimated that more than one billion players in 114 countries around the globe play it, and interest for the game is so high that a Monopoly World Championship has been continuously held since 1973.,
For the first time yesterday The Venetian Macao played host to the final round of this year’s World Championship where twenty-eight world best players battled it out to pass “Go”, including reigning champion, Norwegian Bjørn Halvard Knappskog and veteran aficionado Italian Nicolo Falcone, who was ultimately crowned new World Monopoly Champion.
Some rules have been adapted over the years for this competitive version of the family game with the purpose of making it run faster, the most evident being the inclusion of a ‘fast dice’ called a ‘speed die’ that allows the players to run the board faster. Another of the rules is a ‘time limit’ instead of the regular ‘play until there’s a winner’.

Sin Chi Kuok

The all-day competition saw 28 contestants, representing 26 countries and 2 territories, battling each other until the final table round. Seated in the deciding match were Japan’s Tsutomu Doita, the USA’s Brian Valentine, Norway’s Bjørn Halvard Knappskog and, Italy’s Nicolo Falcone, together with Head Judge Philip E. Orbanes.
Aside from the glory of becoming World Champion, up for grabs was also the chance to pocket a grand prize of USD20,580 for the winner, exactly the equivalent of the “bank” in a standard Monopoly game.
On the sidelines of the competition, 80 sets of special edition Monopoly game boards were displayed, delighting game fans and collectors.
Macau was also one of the territories represented in the competition by player Sin Chi Kuok, who told the Times her reasons for developing a passion for the game. “This game is really exciting because it is all about probabilities and I’m doing probabilities research at University”, she explained. Another incentive that got her hooked is that it requires negotiation skills and strategies, which are topics also of interest to the local player, who’s currently studying at Cornell University in New York, an institution that’s been involved over the years in many studies and publications about the game.
Sin Chi Kuok thinks that besides being entertaining and having a multicultural approach that makes it playable everywhere in the world, Monopoly has many other advantages: “It’s a great game, especially for young kids, because they can easily learn about what money is and investment and revenue, and also how to be persistent and accept failure when you lose”, she added. RM

First World Champion shares experience

Leland Bayrd (center)

Guest of honor at the 2015 Monopoly World Championship in Macau, Leland Bayrd couldn’t pass unnoticed among game fans. Besides being a player for about sixty years now, he was the first Monopoly World Champion back is 1973. Now 75 years old, he’s still keen to participate in every local charity tournament he possibly can back in his native California, USA.
Mr Bayrd also never says no to any invitation to follow the youngsters who now battle for the title that once belonged to him. As he told MDT, he is in Macau to share his passion for the game as well as tips about how to win it. “This is a fun game, it’s set up so people can play a game and compete and enjoy it,” he said, admitting to playing it with his grand-daughter. In his opinion, that’s one of the big reasons why the game has remained popular for so long, because it crosses generations and brings them to the table to have fun together.
Reflecting on whether there’s some special skill to the game, of this he has no doubt: “Yes, there is. First you need to know about the odds and what properties you will likely to land the most… but of course there is also a ‘luck factor’ involved. If you roll continuously a 6 or an 8 you most probably will never land on my property and that will increase dramatically your chances to win the game,” he said, adding that it’s much more about mathematics than pure luck.
Another of the skills Mr Bayrd highlights is negotiation. “You really need to be in this game, you need to face people in the eyes when you are doing a trade and try to understand what they are thinking and feeling about it,” he explained. In his opinion, that’s one of the reasons computerized versions of the game were never too popular, because although it allows players to engage with people around the world, you can never face them.
And for those looking for tips to be a winner, Mr Bayrd gave a few pointers: “The oranges are the properties where you will land on the most and the reds and the next most, so those are the properties you want to get.”
According to the veteran player, the most surprising thing about the current competitions is the age of the contestants. “They are getting younger and younger. In the old days a world championship would be played among people in their forties,” he revealed.