There always seems to be something new and exciting coming out of West Michigan.  And, if you're a board game enthusiast, you're in the right place.

Brothers Chris and Paul Nowak, of Greenville, have created and are self-manufacturing a game that has earned a seal from Texas-based super-smart-people foundation American Mensa.

But you don’t have to be a genius to play Uncle Chestnut’s Table Gype (pronounced like “pipe” but with a “g”), which one reviewer has called a cross between chess and Chinese checkers.

“What’s great about it is it’s very simple to explain to someone,” said Jack Reedy, owner of Rookies Sportscards Plus in Lowell, which has hosted demonstrations of the game.

The Grand Rapids Press reports Paul, 31, and Chris, 28, aren’t members of Mensa, an organization for people with IQs in the top 2 percent. But they were home-schooled growing up in New Jersey, and remember poring over educational toy and game catalogs their parents used to get in the mail.

Those that boasted the Mensa seal, they said, were the most coveted, “so we thought we’d give it a shot.” They entered their game in this year’s Mensa Mind Games Competition, where it was awarded Mensa Select status.

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