There are lots of great reasons to play more board games. As well as being a fun form of entertainment, they can be a great way of getting kids away from the screen while also encouraging family bonding time. On top of this, playing board games could also help to boost brainpower. Here are just five board games that could help you to become smarter.

Chess

Chess is one of the oldest board games still in existence. It’s the perfect game of strategy – players must use problem-solving and forward-planning skills to try and outwit one another and take each others’ pieces. Chess also boosts memory – each player is constantly having to keep a mental record of which moves they can and can’t make. It’s only a two-player game making it unsuitable for a family get-together, but it could be great for one-on-one time with friends and family.

Scrabble

Scrabble is a word game in which players must compete to build the highest scoring words using a jumble of letters randomly chosen from a bag. This board game teaches all kinds of skills. It’s firstly a great game for expanding vocabulary – with the help of an anagram solver, you can discover all kinds of new words. Scrabble also teaches problem solving and also requires some mathematics in order to add up scores. It an all-round perfect board game for making you brainier.

Monopoly

Monopoly is the best game for teaching financial skills. It’s a game of budgeting and investment in which players must take risks and conserve their cash. Players each compete to buy streets in which they can then place hotels and houses on in order to collect rent from other players. There are lots of different versions of Monopoly out there to choose from.

Trivial Pursuit

In Trivial Pursuit, players must answer questions successfully in order to win pieces of pie. The first player to collect all the pieces of their pie wins. The questions in Trivial Pursuit are general knowledge and are themed around various colour-coded categories. You’ll constantly be learning new facts while playing this game, making it great for boosting brain power. Some boards come with separate kids questions.

Cluedo

Cluedo (or Clue as it’s sometimes known) is a classic murder mystery game in which players must solve the details of a murder including who did it, which weapon they used and in which room they committed it. By asking other players questions, you can slowly deduce the details of the murder. All in all, it’s a great test of memory and problem-solving skills.