Chess

I like board games, especially Mastermind, Battleship, and Monopoly, but my favorite is easily Chess. I've had a Chess set since I was nine, and even when I didn't understand the rules of Chess properly (my brother and I called the games we had of Chess during this time "Cheat Chess"), I still thought it was a good game. Whether it's a short or a long go, it's fun to play, though I prefer the long games, as they involve more thinking (wiping the other player out does get tedious after a bit, but that's the same with any game).

While I did like it early on, my interest in the game really picked up when some friends taught my brother and I how to play Chess properly (for example, teaching us that the Queen can go in any direction and keep going in that direction until she reaches the end of the board or another piece, but she can't change direction; or showing us how to castle). We played Chess a lot more often after this, and I am glad they helped us.

Even though the vast majority of my opponents have either been my brother, followed by the computer, Chess has never got old nor lost any of its fun to me. I've heard on occasions that Chess is "predictable" and/or "boring", yet I've not found either of those two terms to be true whenever I've played it, and in fact, I've found it to be the opposite: I love how unpredictable Chess can be...you could be headed for an easy win, but then your opponent makes a couple of strong moves, and suddenly they're the ones going for an easy win; at that point, you have to think really hard about your next moves to avoid defeat, and that clearly eliminates the "boring" aspect.

My Chess set has been packed away for a long time unfortunately. I have been able to play Chess on the computer, both against it and a human player (Chess Titans on Windows 7 is pretty good), but the board game is much better. Hopefully I'll get my Chess board back soon!