The game of MONOPOLY - giant size - remains popular, competitive, cut-throat fun - San Jose Mercury News

Who knew the board game Monopoly was a rich source of life's most vital lessons?

Matt McNally, for one.

"There are so many life skills you can learn from Monopoly," says McNally, who was playing three other top national competitors Saturday at Monopoly in the Park at San Jose's Discovery Meadow. The action was being filmed for "Under the Boardwalk," a documentary about the world's bestselling board game.

"It's about studying the art of negotiation," adds the Las Vegas entertainment manager, who was unseated as U.S. Monopoly champion in 2009. He also puts persuasion and the ability to manage investments on the game's list of virtues.

Donning oversized hats that symbolized which Monopoly piece they had chosen — a top hat, a shoe, a dog and a car — the four men heaved oversized dice, paraded around the larger-than-life board (the only one of its kind in the country) and fiercely negotiated financial deals as the game proceeded.

For Tim Vandenberg of Victorville, who can tell you the odds of landing on one row of properties compared with others, the 75-year-old Hasbro board game remains a perfect tool for teaching his sixth-grade math students about probability and fractions. Vandenberg was one of the top players in the 2009 U.S. Championships last April.

According to the Hasbro Web site, Charles B. Darrow of Germantown, Pa., came up with the idea in 1934, and Parker Brothers first produced it in 1935.

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Monopoly is now sold in 103 countries and produced in 37 languages.

For McNally, Vandenberg, Ken Koury and Domenic Murgo, of Warwick, R.I., who won Saturday's game, what started out as family time around the board game when they were children has turned into a lifelong passion.

"This is celebrating the game of Monopoly and how it brings people together," says filmmaker Kevin Tostado, who has traveled around the world for his film about the game. He said 41 countries sent representatives to the World Monopoly championships in Las Vegas in October. "It's universal. Where ever you go in the world it looks the same. The name of the streets may change."

But longtime competitive Monopoly player Koury has a tougher, colder explanation for why — even in the age of video games — Monopoly remains so popular.

"You have to decide how to manage your assets," he says, referring to the properties that players accumulate as the game proceeds toward a final winner. "You can't win without building enough houses," he said gleefully, "and bankrupting people."

Contact Pauline Lubens at 408-271-3649.

via mercurynews.com

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