In the Charleston County Market mezzanine, Murat Aksoy can be found playing backgammon every Friday on a board hand made of brass and pearl materials.

The mathematics and computer science major estimates the board took two days to make, and he brought it over from Istanbul.

Aksoy plays backgammon with The Board Game Club during their weekly meetings, but it is not the only game he plays.

Chess, backgammon, Monopoly and UNO are also games the club plays.

Aksoy is currently teaching Jonathan Hunt, an admission/record specialist in the Office of the Registrar and Enrollment Management, his backgammon strategy.

Hunt said he has been playing games like checkers, chess, backgammon and Go for years.

As a boy, he played checkers in preschool.

Hunt said it took longer for him to get into chess, backgammon and Risk because they are more time consuming.

He played Go in a club in Urbana that started 40 years ago before he got involved in the Board Game Club, Hunt said.

He said he finds the history of the games very interesting.

The club began meeting in the fall of 2010 and started out by playing Go, a Chinese board game that originated about 4,000 years ago, and chess, a game the group regularly plays and was developed in India in the early 1800s.

“Part of the enjoyment of it is learning about it,” Hunt said.

The club is growing slower than they initially anticipated, and he said they are more than willing to accept new members.

Hunt said the environment is very relaxed and encouraging. Members will readily teach others how to play games and accept anyone who stops by.

Aksoy said the environment gets pretty competitive at times.

He said he enjoys playing backgammon the most and is teaching Hunt his strategy.

Risk is another game the group enjoys playing, Aksoy said.

The game involves more than just rolling dice and can be very competitive, he said. He described the game as political and that alliances have to be formed for a player to be successful.

“People actually fight over the game,” he said.

He has even seen people break off friendships because of the game, Aksoy said

Hunt admits board gaming gets competitive, but the group is encouraging and relaxed. Sometimes they meet to watch television and movies together such as science fiction and British comedies.

The Board Game Club meets upstairs from 6 to 9 p.m. Fridays in the Charleston County Market Mezzanine.

Dominique DeWeese can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].