Play these games and become smarter

Games are a fun and engaging way to develop your mental skills. Even though you may be challenged at work daily with problem-solving thoughts, your brain still needs enjoyable challenges and puzzles to help sharpen its mental abilities.

None of these fun games are tedious and you can fit your favorite one into your busy day by doing them during your commute time or as you relax at home in the evening. Loyal Casino is a good example of something people do for relaxation and a good challenge.

These 15 games rely on strategy, critical thinking, and imaginative abilities. Pick your favorite one of these ever-changing games that don’t allow you to go to auto-pilot mode as you play. Some of these are great games to play with someone else and others can be pondered alone.

Snippets

This fast-paced word game promises that anything goes. Players have 60 seconds to write up as many words as they can from each round’s snippet.

Yueton Metal IQ Puzzle

This is a Chinese ring puzzle game that dates back more than 2000 years. Anyone from the age of six and up has to use both logic, creative thinking, and patience to work out the puzzle. This is the oldest of all known puzzle games and needs the hands to work with the mind and it helps improve short term memory.

Sequence

You need to create a row of five poker-like chips on the board into a sequence that will outsmart your opponents. The game uses elements of luck, but you will also have to employ strategy to block opponents.

Ticket to Ride

In this game, you enact a cross-country train adventure that takes seven days and poses many challenges. You have to make real-life decisions as you collect cards that allow you to use different railway routes that connect cities across the USA. The winner takes it all in this game – a prize of $1 million.

Codenames

Two teams and their Spymasters vie to win while “avoiding” the assassin. In the word game, only the Spymasters know the real name of the agents and they have to give their team clues to coordinate the code names with the real names.

Monopoly

This classic game offers the challenges of real-life problems as players use their creativity and strategy to buy and sell houses, buildings, and national monuments.

Latice Board Game

This is a strategy game that helps develop cognitive and spatial recognition skills. It also helps its players practice planning and interpersonal skills.

Chess

Chess is a game of strategic thought and critical thinking. Any age group can play chess and chess players tend to score higher on intelligence tests.

Mind games

Word puzzles and crosswords are a wonderful way to relieve stress and as you sometimes try to solve a challenging crossword you learn how to deal with real-life stress. Puzzles help to develop critical thinking, improve memory and enhance visual perception. They also boost your happiness levels.

Rubik’s Cube

It took the world by storm, and the Rubik cube continues to challenge the brain as it improves concentration and hand-eye coordination. It also improves short-term memory.

Riddles and brain teasers

These both help the brain recognize possibilities and increase neuroplasticity. They also encourage creativity.

Brain trainer apps

Two of the most popular are Lumosity and Fit Brains Trainer App. These apps have various games that help to stimulate the IQ and EQ and they offer daily training sessions that are customized. Speed and focus are challenged so that you can improve your memory and stimulate your emotional intelligence. You can keep scores and compare to the score of others.

Sudoku

These number puzzles are a great way to increase neuroplasticity, allowing you to see things from different angles and to understand and anticipate patterns.

Scrabble

This beloved word game improves the vocabulary as you are challenged with different letters each time. Your words depend on what your opponent lays out and where you will find the space on the board to fit your words in.

Chinese Mahjong

People with dementia have shown improved cognitive performance when playing Mahjong. That is reason enough to include it into your choice of games that will make you smarter and your mind nimbler.