Surely you have heard of the best selling board game in the world: Chess! It’s been around for so long that it’s very unlikely you’ve never heard of it. Nearly everyone has seen the game played before and the basis is simple—two players square off on either sides of a chessboard, and through meticulous (or careless) calculations, they try to outmaneuver each other using the same 16 pieces: 1 King, 1 Queen, 2 Rooks, 2 Bishops, 2 Knights, and 8 pawns. The goal of the game is to trap the enemy king into what is known as “checkmate”. We’re sure that most of you already know how to play the game, and so we won’t go into details here, but if you would like to read more on how to play the game, follow this link here: http://www.chesscoachonline.com/chess-articles/chess-rules.

Unlike other video games, chess requires little to no mechanical skills like hand-eye coordination, accuracy, and reaction time. Instead it heavily relies on your ability to plan strategically and predict your opponent’s moves. At first glance it may seem like a simple game, but you will find strategies that are more and more complex and intricate as your skill progresses. Chess is really convenient to play as well. Most people have a chess board at home, so during this extended quarantine you should definitely take it out and play with some family. If you want to play online, there are websites like Lichess and Chess.com which pair you against opponents of similar skill level. They offer a variety of time controls, so you can play quick paced“bullet” games which gives each player a total of 1 minute to make their moves, or if you prefer to have more time to think and calculate your moves, you can play “rapid” games of 10 minutes each and “classical” games of 30 minutes each. If you do find yourself being bored during quarantine, definitely hop on Lichess and give it a try.

Disclaimer: Since you can play chess online, it counts as a video game.