Brain Games

If you've ever faced a Scrabble rack like EEEEEJQ, you know that luck sometimes fails you. So which strategies can help you win no matter what?

By Laurie L. Dove

Parcheesi has been inciting strategy and competition in aristocrats and children alike for two millennia. How is such a simple game so compelling?

By Allison Wachtel

House Monopoly rules make us feel like Goldilocks: Some make the game too hard -- others, too soft. Which can be ditched to make the game just right?

By Laurie L. Dove

Do you remember the last time you played a game? You probably improved your memory while you played -- without even realizing it.

By Jacob Clifton

Games involving math force you to use your brain's full power, and some have been challenging people for centuries. The five on this list on this list will test your numerical agility and teach math ideas and functions as you play.

By John Kelly

Games like chess and checkers have been around for centuries for a reason: They're very easy to learn but difficult to master. What other games make the cut for this list?

By Patrick J. Kiger

It may be the only board game loosely inspired by sumo wrestling. How do you tackle Abalone?

By Patrick J. Kiger

Apples to Apples is a relatively simple party game that can yield hilarious results. Players just match nouns to adjectives, but when the game is played deftly, hilarity ensues.

By Dave Roos

Axis & Allies is a popular board game that allows players to fight World War II on a variety of fronts. Would you like to defend Pearl Harbor or help invade Normandy? Here's your chance!

By Ed Grabianowski

Are you sharper than the contrasting triangles you'll spy on a backgammon board? You'll have to be if you want to master this strategic game.

By William Harris

Chinese checkers is a fun and easy-to-learn board game that has little to do with traditional checkers and even less to do with China. How do you win?

By Clint Pumphrey

The same simple rules and equipment that make Go easy to get into also make it difficult to master. Learn what's kept Go popular for some 3,000 years and how the game works.

By Laurie L. Dove

Monopoly is one of the world's most popular board games with a storied history. But how do you even win this long game of monopolizing money?

By Dave Roos

Blue disease is piling up in London and Atlanta while the scientist and the medic bicker over the next best steps for fighting the rising tide of infection. If that sounds like fun, you're going to love the board game Pandemic.

By Robert Lamb

Power Grid is a popular game that explores allows players to use power plants and natural resources to build cities. It sounds complicated, but you'll have fun and learn something at the same time.

By Ed Grabianowski

Do you secretly harbor a dream to become the supreme ruler of the entire planet? Then maybe Risk is your type of board game.

By Patrick J. Kiger

SET, a card game of pure skill, is played in family homes, math classrooms and Mensa competition spaces alike. Find out how a game with just four variables has captured so many fans.

By Laurie L. Dove

The island of Catan may be fictional, but the devoted fans this addictive board game generates are very real (and super strategic). Get sucked in, too, in How Settlers of Catan Works.

By Robert Lamb

Some of the best strategy games -- those that require thinking rather than luck or physical ability -- have been around for centuries, while others have been released in the past decade. Which ones stand out from the pack?

By John Kelly

The ancient Chinese game of mahjong has evolved into numerous versions as its popularity spread throughout the world. What are the basic rules you can use to get started playing?

By Jennifer Sellers

The game of chess has been challenging the human mind for centuries and the Netflix show "The Queen's Gambit has made it more popular than ever. How do you play this time-honored board game?

By Meredith Bower

Checkers is easy enough for young kids to play but adults can have fun mastering the billions of moves as well. So how do you get started?

By Thorin Klosowski

Scrabble is a crossword game of both skill and chance -- you have to have a good knowledge of words, but you're also stuck with whatever tiles you pick. After all, what can you spell with an X, a Z and an L?

By Jill Jaracz

The game of dominoes is quite simple -- all you have to do is connect tiles with the same number of pips to each other until you have none left. Playing the game is simple, but winning is another story.

By Josh Clark

In 1954, two Canadians on a yacht created the addicting dice game as way to pass time. And while Yahtzee may be a game of chance, but there's a fair amount of strategy involved, too.

By Julia Layton & Carrie Whitney, Ph.D.