Parchís

Parchís is a Spanish board game of the Cross and Circle family. It is an adaptation of the Indian game Pachisi.

Parchís was a very popular game in Spain at one point as well as in Europe, and it is still popular specially among adults and seniors. Since it uses dice, Parchís is not usually regarded as an abstract strategy game like checkers or chess. It does not depend entirely on luck either, since the four pawns under a player's command demand some sort of strategy.

Parchís is license-free in Spain, so in stores it is just as easy to find as a deck of cards, and is usually cheaper. Although the original game allows up to four players (that is, the board counts four colors: yellow, blue, red and green), six-player versions are not hard to find (adding orange and purple, in that order), and eight-player boards can be found in big toy stores.

Traditionally, each player has a cubilete (dice cup) to shake and toss the dice. This does not affect the course of the game itself, but most habitual players find it imperative.

Parchís (group)

Parchis was a 1980s children's group from Spain which enjoyed moderate success in countries around the world.

The group's name is a reference to the board game, Parcheesi (translated as Parchís in Spanish), where each player represents a different colored pawn (red, yellow, blue, and green). In the same way, each member of the group dressed in one of these four colors with the fifth member representing the dice.

Parchis' original five members were Constantino Fernández Fernández (the red pawn), Yolanda Ventura Román (the yellow pawn), Oscar Ferrer Cañadas (the blue pawn), Gemma Pratts Tremens (the green pawn), and David Muñoz Forcada (the rolling die, which is singular for dice).

After several line-up changes, the group disbanded in 1986 with various members continuing successful careers in the world of entertainment.

History

Parchis was created in 1979, after executives from the Belter Records company placed a newspaper ad in Barcelona, asking children to attend auditions to form a musical group. At first, Belter Records intended to employ the group members during summers only; the company's executives figured out that would be the best season of the year for Parchis albums and concerts to sell.