By | Luther Abrams
Strategy games are some of the more underrated games you can play. They help improve your decision-making, critical thinking, and analytical thinking skills. In addition, these games put a player’s ability to concentrate and think on their feet to the test. When you play a strategy game onboard, most likely that you have no idea what your opponents are planning and must account for all possibilities if they are to win.
Some of the most underrated games include go, chess, and hive.
Go
Our first game is, of course, go. Go is the world’s oldest strategy game, known by different names. It is known for featuring heavily in Eastern media and its abstract nature. Known as i-go, Chinese (Pinyin), weiqi, or (Wade-Giles romanization) wei-ch’i, in Korean baduk or pa-tok, it is a board game for two players of East Sian origin.
The game is thought to have originated in China some 4,000 years ago. According to some sources, the game was born as early as 2356 BCE but is more likely to have been in the 2nd millennium BCE. It was bought in Japan in 500 CE. During the Heian period (794-1185), considered Japan’s Golden Age in terms of its culture, go became quite popular. With the rise of the warrior (samurai class), then so did the popularity and prominence of go.
The go-playing experience is a far cry from an e-bingo Philippines one. You can play go traditionally on on a square wooden board (goban).
The game of go features heavily in the recently acclaimed Korean drama, The Glory. The main character, Moon Dong Eun, played by Song Hye Kyo, met with her bully’s husband, Ha Do Young, through a game of go.
Shogi
Another game is the game of shogi. Shogi also originates from Japan. It is considered Japan’s answer to chess. The game is the earliest historical chess-related game that allows captured pieces to be returned to the board by the capturing player; this rule was invented during the fifteenth (15th) century to accommodate the real-life practice of mercenaries turning their coats and changing their loyalties.
In popular media, shogi is the game that Shikamaru Nara from Naruto plays. His character is linked to the game, and it is because his character possesses a high IQ and affinity for creating and executing strategies.
In flashbacks, he often played the game with his late sensei. For example, when his sensei, Asuma, is critically injured in battle, he reminds Shikamaru that in the game, the king must always be protected. He uses a parallel between the king in shogi and the next generation of the Hidden Leaf (Konoha) in the future. He also referred to his future child, Mirai – whom Shikamaru would later mentor.
Chess
Last but not least, we have chess. It remains one of the world’s most popular games. The modern game of chess that we currently know evolved and emerged during the fifteenth (15th) century in Europe. You can play it on a chessboard with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. Like go and shogi, it is an abstract game.
Chess popularity surged in 2020 after The Queen’s Gambit aired. The Queen’s Gambit tells the hero’s journey of Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy), a chess child prodigy with her demons, set during the 1960s. Chess was also a plot point in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone; in its climax, Harry’s friend, Ron Weasley, played wizard chess as a key task in the labyrinth leading to the Sorcerer’s stone.
Wrapping Up
Strategy games offer plenty of benefits. However, you can play plenty of great classic strategy games- from go, chess, and shogi, if you want to keep sharpening your mind. The principles you practice when you play such games are easily translatable into real life.
