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| President Reagan |
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| Site of "The Gameth Shop" |
In a new biography to be released this week, Wendell Reagan, the late President Ronald Reagan’s first cousin, details a heretofore unpublicized aspect of the Reagan Presidency- that President Reagan was not only an accomplished Shogi player, but was “kind of obsessed with the game.” (Shogi is a Japanese board game, similar to chess.) According to the book, President Reagan was so obsessed with the game during his two terms in office that he would often leave the residential area of the White House at night and meet up at 'The Gameth Shop", a board games shop in nearby Georgetown. “It was kind of a challenge making sure no one saw him sneak in there,"a former Reagan administration official said. Walter Dobson, of Silver Spring, Md. now 62, used to be a regular opponent of Reagans at ‘The Gameth Shop’. “He said he really only felt comfortable with people who shared his passion of Shogi.” According to the author, one of the saddest days at The Gameth Shop, (since renovated into an organic cheese store) came when Reagan’s second term ended in 1989- because he never again returned to play with his old friends. Dobson said “He wrote us once in a while, but we never did see him again. We did hear through the grapevine that he started his own Shogi club in California.”
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| Shogi Board Game |
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