Allan B. Calhamer

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Allan Brian Calhamer (born December 7, 1931 in Hinsdale , Illinois - † February 25, 2013 in La Grange , Illinois) was an American game designer . He developed the board game Diplomacy .

Life

Early years

Calhamer was born in Hinsdale and grew up in La Grange Park , both suburbs of Chicago . His father was an engineer , his mother a teacher . As a bookworm and lover of board games , he preferred to spend his free time at home, where he started to invent his own games at an early age. While studying an old geography book, an attic find in which maps of European countries from the time before the First World War were found, interest in aspects of diplomacy arose even in his childhood . He was fascinated by the earlier borders in Europe and by countries like Austria-Hungary , Serbia and the Ottoman Empire , which no longer existed, and he drew his own maps. He also read manuals on weapons from World War I and followed the news of World War II with his parents .

He graduated from Lyons Township High School in La Grange Park and received a scholarship to Harvard University , where he studied history . Instead of exercising in the open air or at parties, he also preferred to spend his free hours as a student with friends who met for board games. He was a member of the academic chess team and developed a three-dimensional version of tic-tac-toe during this time . Fellow students noticed his resistance to the norms of student behavior: on the one hand he professed his support for the Republican Party in a liberal environment , but on the other hand tried his hand at being a modern painter .

Calhamer attended courses on political geography , in which he developed a deeper understanding of the concept of geopolitics as defined by Halford Mackinder , particularly in his Heartland theory, formulated in 1904, on the struggle between land and sea powers. Attending a lecture by historian Sidney Bradshaw Fay (1876–1967) on the history of Europe in the 19th century inspired Calhamer in 1952 to read his book The Origins of the World War (1928). It was a revisionist work in which Fay contradicted the unilateral assignment of guilt to the German Reich for the outbreak of war in 1914, which prevailed among Anglo-Saxon historians , and instead the alliance systems that arose after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/1871 and the related systems Identified secret diplomacy as a precondition for the war. In later years, Calhamer described his reaction to reading the book as a moment of enlightenment: “It all fell apart. I thought, 'What a board game could be made out of it!' "

Inventor of Diplomacy

Inspired by Mackinder and Fays theories, as well as elements of the card game Hearts and chess, Calhamer began developing Diplomacy , which was originally to be called Realpolitik . He based the playing field on a map of Europe from around 1900, but paid attention to the largely balanced importance of the sea and land shares. In a simulation of the rivalries and diplomatic constellations before the First World War, up to seven players compete in Diplomacy , each representing the military forces of a major European power of the time (German Empire, France , Austria-Hungary, Great Britain , Russian Empire , Italy and Ottoman Empire) control to gain access to “supply centers” and thus to strategic supremacy on the continent. The movements of the pawns in a game round do not take place successively and by throwing the dice, but rather simultaneously on the basis of submitted moves that are evaluated. One characteristic is that (often secret) alliances with fellow players are necessary for one's own success, but these are only entered into for a limited period of time, i.e. are of a purely tactical nature, as there can only be one winner in the end. The communication with the other players includes elements of persuasion and deception. During the development phase that took several years, Calhamer often recruited fellow students as test players, which turned out to be not always easy, as the tactics and deception that are essential to win the game did not suit everyone's taste. Calhamer himself later admitted that his friends' enthusiasm for Diplomacy had been limited.

In 1953, Calhamer earned his BA in History from Harvard . Because diabetes made him unfit for military service, he was able to continue his academic training as a doctoral student at Harvard Law School as early as 1954 - with the aim of a later career in the foreign service . He continued to work on his game and among the law students with whom he was now mainly in contact, this also enjoyed greater popularity. Although what he'd learned in law school had helped hone the game (development was essentially complete in 1954), he left Harvard Law School after a year and a half without a degree.

Calhamer passed the diplomatic service entrance exam, which resulted in a three-month post that took him to Africa. After his return to the United States, he continued to improve Diplomacy and made the final changes to the game structure in 1958 - based on numerous test games, where he had gotten ideas from the players. He was hired by Sylvania's Applied Research Laboratory in Waltham, Massachusetts to do Operations Research , a systems analytical method for solving military issues. However, the company's expectations that Calhamer could translate his game into military-strategic concepts were not fulfilled. He saw himself as a game developer and the office work bored him.

After several leading game manufacturers rejected the production of Diplomacy , Calhamer finally self- published the parlor game in 1959 with a print run of 500 and marketed it through retailers in Chicago, New York and Boston . The game sold out after half a year, and Diplomacy gained a growing number of enthusiastic fans, allegedly including John F. Kennedy and Henry Kissinger . Calhamer sold the rights in 1960 to Games Research , who first published the game in 1961. Later the rights to Avalon Hill and (after its acquisition in 1998) to Hasbro . Calhamer never benefited greatly from the growing success of Diplomacy - several hundred thousand copies have been sold over the years. He received 5% royalties for every game sold, but that wasn't enough to make a living.

Later years, private matters and death

After six years, Calhamer left the Sylvania position and moved to New York, where he lived on welfare while looking for a job as a computer programmer. He met Hilda, an attractive immigrant from the Dominican Republic who worked as a model. The two married in 1967. Calhamer accepted a position as a tour guide at the Statue of Liberty . On a visit to La Grange Park in the early 1970s, Hilda liked the suburban atmosphere there so much that she was able to persuade her husband to move back to his hometown. Calhamer then worked as a postman in La Grange Park for 21 years before retiring. An inheritance guaranteed him a pleasant retirement.

Allan and Hilda Calhamer had two daughters whom they raised bilingual. Calhamer enjoyed his work, which gave him a lot of freedom to spend time with his children, which would not have been possible if he had continued a previous office job. His leisure activities included reading (often from books on history), painting, and sculpting . He developed a few more board games, but they were unsuccessful. His growing reputation in the gaming scene earned him invitations to congresses, where he also took part in diplomacy rounds - as a moderately talented strategist. Occasionally, Diplomacy fans would visit his home unannounced.

Allan B. Calhamer died on February 25, 2013 at the age of 81 in the Adventist La Grange Memorial Hospital in his hometown.

Publications (selection)

  • "The Invention of Diplomacy". In: Games & Puzzles . No. 21, January 1974.
  • Outpost Squares in Chess . Outpost, La Grange Park 1979.
  • Calhamer on Diplomacy. The board game 'Diplomacy' and Diplomatic History . 1st Books Library, Bloomington 2000, ISBN 1585007587 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e f g h i Edward McClelland: "All in the Game". In: Chicago Magazine , May 2009. Accessed March 31, 2013.
  2. ↑ a b c d "Allan Calhamer". Telegraph obituary of March 12, 2013. Accessed March 31, 2013.
  3. ^ A b c d e Allan Calhamer: "The Invention of Diplomacy". ( Memento from September 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) In: Games & Puzzles . No. 21, January 1974.
  4. ↑ Sidney Bradshaw Fay: The Origins of the World War . Macmillan, New York 1928.
  5. ↑ In the original: “That brought everything together. I thought, 'What a board game that would make!' ”Quoted from: McClelland: “ All in the Game ”. In: Chicago Magazine , May 2009.
  6. ^ A b c d e Joan Giangrasse Kates: "Allan B. Calhamer, 1931-2013". Chicago Tribune Obituary , March 3, 2013. Accessed March 31, 2013.
  7. ↑ Maureen O'Donnell: "LaGrange Park mailman who invented board game Diplomacy is dead at 81". Chicago Sun-Times obituary , March 3, 2013. Accessed April 1, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Calhamer, Allan B.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Calhamer, Allan Brian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American game writer
DATE OF BIRTH December 7, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Hinsdale , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH February 25, 2013
Place of death La Grange , Illinois