Starting the Saturday Table
This started as an accident. Two of us had been playing chess on alternate Tuesdays for a while, with a wooden set missing one white pawn that we replace with a thimble, and a third person asked if they could come and watch, and then a fourth asked if we could play something that was not chess. So tonight was the first evening with four at the table and more than one game in the house, and I am writing it down because I have a feeling it will become a habit.
Before any game we set three rules, and they have held since. Phones go in a bowl on the sideboard; if yours rings you may answer it in the hall. The person whose house it is makes the tea and chooses the first game, and the others choose in turn after that. And nothing greasy near the cards, a rule that was broken within the hour by a bag of crisps and has been enforced more strictly ever since.
The games tonight. Dominoes first, because everyone knows it: a double-six set, the block version where you draw seven and play off the ends, four rounds, scored by the pips left in losing hands. Running totals after four rounds were 7, 19, 24 and 41, and the 41 was me. Then cribbage, which only two of us knew, taught at the table with the board and the pegs, and played as two partnerships, which turned out to be the ideal way to learn it because your partner does your counting. First to 121 took about fifty minutes. Fifteen-two, fifteen-four and a pair is eight, and I will hear that in my sleep.
Chess was last, two boards side by side, with the thimble. Both games were over in under half an hour, which says something about the quality. Nobody minded.
What struck me afterward, washing the cups, was how different the room felt with four. Chess for two is quiet and a bit grim. Four around a table talk, and the game is partly an excuse. We have agreed to try again next Saturday at a different house, and someone mentioned a tile game with little wooden figures that they have in a cupboard. I expect there will be arguments about scoring. I expect that is the point.