Which board games do you think are best for children to play if you want them to develop their minds?

 

Deterministic, perfect-information board games like chess or Go can be good for developing reasoning and creativity skills but these games do not teach about randomness or imperfect information. In the real world we adults have to deal with randomness and imperfect information a lot, so maybe games like monopoly are better?

I just played Candy Land.

Everybody loves Risk.

Chess or Go are really great games for children, especially chess, your child will have to learn to concentrate and focus his mind better if he wants to win. Through the Desert is also a very interesting perfect-information board games, it's similar to Go, but it's easier to master. Also, there's Hive, a board game with no board, and with insects (you can try it; http://www.hivemania.com/) !

 

I don't really like monopoly, too much luck involved. But some games, like Tigris & Euphrates or Ticket to Ride (original), have just enough randomness. In monopoly, it's often very hard to adapt to a series of bad luck, but most of the time in Ticket to Ride you can adapt and think of a new strategy to win. A truly great game, and everybody seems to like it.

one game I have: Triopoly

(http://www.grandmaspoils.com/triopoly.html)

 

Its like monopoly, but its more difficult, as there are various levels and such.

I've played Perfection as a kid, and I loved it. It requires good memory skills and good hand-eye coordination. It's also timed, so it makes it harder, and instills even better learning for the child.