1. Chess
Chess needs no introduction, but plenty of people who own a set have forgotten how the knight moves or what castling allows. Each side has 16 pieces on an 8 by 8 board, White moves first, and the game ends when a king is checkmated: attacked with no way out. A casual game takes 10 minutes to an hour. The page covers every piece, castling, en passant, promotion, and the ways a game can end in a draw, and there is a separate guide to setting up the board.
2. Checkers
Checkers uses the same 8 by 8 board with 12 pieces each, set on the dark squares. Pieces move one square diagonally forward and capture by jumping, and the rule most families get wrong is that jumping is compulsory. Reach the far row and your piece is crowned a king that can move backward. A game takes 15 to 30 minutes and children from about 6 can hold their own.
3. Backgammon
Backgammon gives each player 15 checkers and a pair of dice, and the race home is full of choices: when to run, when to build a blockade, when to hit a single checker and send it back to the bar. Games take 10 to 30 minutes, and the doubling cube lets either player raise the stakes, which makes a series of short games feel like a match.
4. Mancala
Mancala, in the Kalah version sold in most US stores, is a board of 12 small pits and two stores with 48 stones. You scoop up a pit and sow the stones one at a time around the board. Land in your own store and you go again; land in your own empty pit and you capture what sits across from it. It takes 10 to 20 minutes, needs no reading, and older players find more in it than they expect.
5. Sorry!
Sorry! replaces dice with a deck of cards: each card moves a pawn forward, and a few do more, like the 4 that moves backward, the 7 you can split between two pawns, and the 11 that swaps places with an opponent. The Sorry! card itself bumps someone back to Start. Current sets give each player 3 pawns; older ones have 4. A game takes 30 to 45 minutes.
6. Trouble
Trouble has the dice in a plastic bubble, so nothing rolls off the table. You need a 6 to get a peg out of Home, a 6 also rolls again, and landing on another peg sends it back. First to get all four pegs into Finish wins. The rules fit on an index card, games last 30 to 45 minutes, and it works from about age 5.
7. Rummikub
Rummikub plays like rummy with numbered tiles: 14 each, runs in one color and groups of the same number in different colors. Your first play has to total 30 points from your own rack. After that you can rearrange anything on the table as long as every set is legal when your turn ends, which is where the game gets good. 2 to 4 players, 20 to 40 minutes a game.
8. Cornhole
Cornhole is the one on this list you play outside: two slanted boards 27 feet apart and four bags a player. A bag through the hole scores 3, a bag on the board scores 1, and only the difference between the two sides counts each round. First to 21 wins. Singles or doubles, 15 to 30 minutes a game, and the official board and bag sizes are on the page if you are building a set.
Strategy games or race games?
The first four games on this list are for two players and reward thinking ahead: nobody wins chess or checkers by luck, and even backgammon and mancala go to the better player more often than not. Sorry! and Trouble are race games for up to four, where the cards or the die decide most of what happens, which is why they suit mixed ages. Rummikub sits between the two.
What comes in the box
If pieces have gone missing, most of these can be patched with what you have. Checkers pieces can stand in for missing chess pawns in a pinch, and any small beads or dried beans work as mancala stones as long as you have 48.
| Game | Players | In the box | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chess | 2 | Board, 32 pieces | 10–60 min |
| Checkers | 2 | Board, 24 checkers | 15–30 min |
| Backgammon | 2 | Board, 30 checkers, 4 dice, doubling cube | 10–30 min |
| Mancala | 2 | Board with 12 pits and 2 stores, 48 stones | 10–20 min |
| Sorry! | 2–4 | Board, 45 cards, 3 or 4 pawns per color | 30–45 min |
| Trouble | 2–4 | Board with dice bubble, 16 pegs | 30–45 min |
| Rummikub | 2–4 | 106 tiles, 4 racks | 20–40 min |
| Cornhole | 2 or 4 | 2 boards, 8 bags | 15–30 min |
Questions people ask
- What is the best board game for two players?
- Chess and backgammon are the deepest two-player games in most closets. Checkers and mancala are quicker to learn and suit younger players. If you want luck to play a part, backgammon is the pick, because the dice keep games close while rewarding the better player over a series.
- What board game is good for young kids?
- Trouble is the easiest: roll, move, and send other pegs home, with the dice sealed in a bubble. Sorry! is the next step up, since the cards add a few choices. For a first strategy game, checkers works from about age 6.
- How many pieces are in a chess set?
- A chess set has 32 pieces, 16 per side: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns. The board has 64 squares, and each player puts a light square in the right-hand corner nearest them.
- How many stones do you need for mancala?
- The common Kalah version uses 48 stones: 4 in each of the 12 small pits at the start. The two stores at the ends begin empty. Some sets and variants start with 3 or 6 per pit for a shorter or longer game.
- Do you need a 6 to get out in Trouble?
- Yes. In Trouble a peg can only leave Home on a roll of 6, and a 6 also earns another roll. In the current Hasbro edition, a roll of 1 lets each other player bring a peg out instead.
- Is Rummikub a board game?
- Rummikub has no board: it is a tile game played on the table, closer to rummy than to a board game. It usually sits on the same shelf as board games, which is why it is on this list.