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Katelyn Kirkland, 11, celebrates her victory by holding her opponent’s king aloft while playing lawn chess against Hannah Wingfield at “Checkered Past: The Story of Board Games” at the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History in Bryan on Wednesday. The exhibit features histories of board games and continues through Oct. 29.

The entrance to "Checkered Past: The Story of Board Games" is shown at the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History in Bryan on Wednesday. The exhibit features histories of board games and continues through Oct. 29.

After only being open to limited attendance during the pandemic, the “Checkered Past: The Story of Board Games” exhibit will return to the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History on Friday.

The exhibit, which explores the history of board games and their influence on human culture, originally opened to the public in February 2020 but closed shortly after due to COVID-19 and reopened to a lower-than-expected turnout. To provide the community with a better opportunity to enjoy the exhibit and its interactive activities, the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History at 3211 Briarcrest Dr. in Bryan, will once again hold the exhibit from June 24 through Oct. 29. Attendance costs $5 for adults, $4 for children and is free for children under 3.

Rebecca Ingram, the former curator of the exhibit and current archivist and publications coordinator for the Texas A&M Institute of Nautical Archaeology, said the coincidental timing of the original opening was the main reason for bringing it back this summer.

“A lot of people just weren’t going out to visit museums the way they had been,” Ingram said. “We had quite a few guests, who didn’t have the chance to see it, comment to us asking, ‘Oh, will you ever bring that one back?’ … so we knew that we could bring it back.”

Ingram said board games are an ancient human tradition.

“Board games far predate any written human history,” Ingram said. “The oldest object that [historians and anthropologists] believe to be a board that was used for playing a game dates to about 6000 B.C.”

Ingram said she plans to discuss why board games are such fascinating historical objects during her presentation at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

“What I love about board games is they don’t stay in one place, they travel [and] evolve as they travel,” Ingram said. “One of the images that I’m going to show in the lecture is some chess pieces that were found on a shipwreck that dates to about 1,000 years ago.”

Deborah Cowman, the museum’s executive director, said she is looking forward to the interactive aspects that the exhibit will provide.

“I think the most wonderful thing about this exhibit is that so many people can relate to board games,” Cowman said. “It’s a great exhibit to have up during the summer when kids can come … and there’s things kids can play with their parents or grandparents.”

Cowman said the interactive parts of the exhibit were not available when it first opened during the pandemic.

“All the interactives we had to remove [and] that kind of took some of the spirit out of the exhibit,” Cowman said. “So this time around we’ve got all the interactives back and I think that makes it a different experience this time.”

Besides the more common games such as backgammon, chess and checkers, Cowman said the exhibit also will feature some unique items.

“We even have a ‘Game of Thrones’ game that we borrowed directly from Cushing Library and from [George R. R. Martin],” Cowman said.

While the exhibit doesn’t officially open until Friday, following a presentation by Ingram, Cowman said people can already come view the exhibit.

“We basically had a soft opening [last] Friday so the exhibit is all in place and actually open to the public right now,” Cowman said.

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Katelyn Kirkland, 11, celebrates her victory by holding her opponent’s king aloft while playing lawn chess against Hannah Wingfield at “Checkered Past: The Story of Board Games” at the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History in Bryan on Wednesday. The exhibit features histories of board games and continues through Oct. 29.

The entrance to "Checkered Past: The Story of Board Games" is shown at the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History in Bryan on Wednesday. The exhibit features histories of board games and continues through Oct. 29.

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