Do you have the brain power to focus all your attention on a given task for a long period of time? Do you know how to manage the limited resource (money, time) allocated to you effectively? Well below are 6 fun ways to boost your brain power.
You know the feeling. It’s that rare state when it seems you can do no wrong. Maybe you’re playing tennis and every shot is landing exactly where you aim it. Or perhaps solutions to those gnarly work problems are coming to you so easily that you wonder why they seemed insurmountable before. For most of us, these moments of vision and high performance are too rare. Why is it that sometimes you fire on all cylinders and at other times you can’t even start the engine? The answer may be this: You need to learn the art of laser focusing your concentration and all your attention on a particular subject and the following list of games which require extreme mind and will power, have the advantage of boosting brain power.
1. Battle on a board
Chess is one of the most popular games around the world. It is a two players game and is played on a board, each with 16 pieces. As a personal chess player, I feel that after a chess game, my power of concentration increases ten folds.
Benefits :
The main advantage behind playing chess is that you develop a critical mind at the same time. You learn to judge the value of each decision you make and each step you take, you learn to improvise and develop strategies on the go and at the same time think fast within a time limit if you are playing with a clock.
For the beginner you can learn to play chess at the following sites:
After you’ve mastered the basic gameplay and for players seeking to advance to a higher level, the following may help you:
The following are sites where you can pitch yourself for free against players across the globe:
- GameKnot - My personal favourite
- Chess Maniac
- Chess World
2. The digits must occur only once
Sudoku, literally translated as the digits must occur only once, says it all. With only a grid of paper and a pencil, this is one of the hardest and sharpest game ever created by man.
Benefits :
It develops a very flexible mind which tends to look at a problem from all angles. It induces in you a sort of automatism which prohibits you from neglecting the smallest detail and helps you refine the art of trial and error.
You can learn how to play Sudoku and try out various strategies and tips underlying its gameplay at the following websites:
You can also play online or download printable versions of sudoku at the following sites:
3. Black or White
This is not the popular Michael Jackson’s Song but a game played with white or black beads on a game. Go is a popular japanese game and the following extract from wikipedia summarises it all:
The standard Go game is played by two players alternately placing black and white stones on the vacant intersections of a 19 × 19 line grid. A stone or a group of stones is captured and removed if it is tightly surrounded by stones of the opposing color. The objective is to control a larger territory than the opponent’s by placing one’s stones tactically, so that as few stones as possible could be captured by one’s opponent. The game ends and the score is counted when both players consecutively pass on a turn, indicating that neither side can increase its territory or reduce its opponent’s.
Benefits :
Unlike chess which develops tactical and strategical mind, Go embodies the union of the mind and soul. It is renowned worldwide for its simple rule and strategical complexity.
There is some evidence to suggest a correlation between playing go and the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.[15] PET scans show that mental exercises, such as go and music, help to invigorate and develop the right brain hemisphere; the area that typically shows significant atrophy in patients suffering from the aforementioned disorders.[16] The game purportedly increases usage of both hemispheres of the brain, in contrast to other games (such as Chess), which are primarily “right or left brain” games, and it also may reinforce the neurological connection between the hemispheres. This multi-dimensional play is supposedly the result of the combining of pure numerical calculation and an intuitive spacial awareness.
Quote: Wikipedia
The sites below will explain to you the gameplay behind Go:
You can play Go for free at the following sites:
4. Code Breaker
Mastermind is a two players game where you have to break a code. You have to analyse coloured pegs and try to deduce a pattern of coloured codes the other player has entered. It is a recently invented game as compared to the other above but it is still a challenging one to the mind as it’s name suggests.
Benefits :
The most obvious advantage of playing mastermind is acquiring deductive faculties. It also sharpens the mind and develops analytical skills when deducing the colours of the pegs.
You can learn mastermind at the following sites:
Develop your skills in mastermind at the sites below:
5. Defense of the Ancients
Defense of the Ancients is a team game with two opposing sides. Created for the game Warcraft III, DotA can be played as a multiplayer game, either on Battle.net, private servers or local area networks. Unlike regular Warcraft III games, in which many units are controlled by the player, in DotA each player must choose or randomly select a single hero - with its own skills, strengths, and weaknesses - and control only this hero in order to achieve victory. The objective here is to destroy the opposing team’s main structure (the Ancients - The World Tree or The Frozen Throne), thus giving rise to the game name. To reach the Ancient, each hero must defeat waves of units, structures and enemy heroes. Along the way, the player may upgrade his or her hero by defeating enemies in combat, which supplies gold and experience points. These are both necessary in order to purchase upgrades either from shops or the hero’s ability list.
Each hero can learn three “standard” abilities, and a special “ultimate” ability in all versions. Each hero also has the fundamental attributes, Strength, Agility, and Intelligence, of which one is designated as a “primary” attribute. This combination of unique skills and the heroes’ affinity for a particular attribute defines each hero’s role in gameplay.
Benefits :
It is a visually aesthetic game and besides possessing the obvious advantages of a normal strategy game, it also enhances team play, quick thinking and reaction time to enemy attacks.
Learn the basics of Dota and much more at Dota-Allstars and download the game at GetDota. You also has the ability to play with computer bots on Dota AI maps which you can download at GetDota.
6. May the force be with you
Ever dreamt of being the emperor of a planet. On Ogame.org, you are one. Ogame is a browser based, text space war game that combines skill, strategy, and luck. The object of the game is to build your empire and conquer the universe.
Benefits :
Ogame seems a fairly easy game to play on paper but this is far from being so. Ogame requires timing, resource management skills, diplomacy skills and knowing when to fight or not. It helps you develop tactics and strategies. It reinforces your competitive skill more than other games because of its ranking system which include millions of users worldwide.
You can learn how to play ogame at the following sites:
You can play the english version of ogame at Ogame.org but if you prefer, there exists other versions in different languages.
I’m off now to play a game of chess online but if you know of other games, please share it with us. Try the games listed above and tell us how you feel afterwards and if you liked them.
Tags: 22 Comments
22 responses so far ↓
Sudoku, Chess and Mastermind… my fav…
Chess and dota my all time favourite!
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Chess and Sudoku are great . nice post ..stumbled
Ogame seems interesting. Army game @ Ipbgaming.com is also one of the good strategy game.
Focus no jutsu !!!!
I’ve played Ogame for some time (at least 6 months) and I can confirm that it’s far from being easy when you are getting strong and you get targets for other players. But it’s really interesting and well done.
There also lots of strategy or management not especially about war and some are really not as easy as they seem (become a zoo manager or rise sheeps or take the lead of a monster agency, sorry, these links are french)
ATARI!! I play Go and it is interesting! I love “Go” because the variation is unlimited. Just like making border for your white country and prevent from invention from the black country.
Black ‘n white!
Stumbled! Thanks for the hard work providing this massive game and tutorial.
I like Age of Empires and Rise of nations
I love Need For Speed, Age of Empires & all Blizzard games.(Warcraft, Starcraft & Diablo).
I would also recommend Command & Conquer…
& THE GAME to *upgrade* ur brain is Brain Challenge by Gameloft (on Nokia s60)
Gonna check out army game reviewsaurus! thnx!
Ogame is too time-consuming. I prefer fast games like dota and chess.
Thnx for the links Nym. No worry i understand french.
Age of empires was my favourite game 6 years ago but try dota once and you’ll convert to it!
Need for speed increases our reflex actions and concentration but our was looking for logic when i wrote this post.
Got to try out Brain Challenge though.
Sudoku was fun while I didn’t wrote sudoku slover. But GO, I think is one of the most interesting game!
yuyu .. i love playing sudoku .. [:D]and I also know how to play chess and code breaker ..
euhh .. i think checkers also should have been included [:p]
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I love Dota!!! Its so fun specially with friends.
You’ll convert to it! Need for speed increases our reflex actions and concentration but our was looking for logic when i wrote this post.
DotA is far inferior to standard Warcraft III for strategy. Production management and countering unit types is pure strategy and DotA leaves it out. Warcraft III has heros as well, but DotA dumbs the game down so there is virtually no brainwork. It’s an RPG, basically.
Dan Ostrowski, I partly agree to what so say but not entirely. DotA focuses on one thing that ladder leaves out on, that is team coordination. If you play any kind of DotA that is about you’re average pub level you will need a lot more coordination and a well planned team lineup. This is one of the reason that softwares like teamspeak and vent are used much more in high level DotA game then say a high level organized ladder game.
If DotA “supercharges” your brain, you must be a very pathetic excuse for a human.
Which game is the most useful one? I bet, it’s Go. What do you think?
I love game
I’m online game player!
I think I particularly like two of the games - Defense of the Ancients and Ogame. I may give those a try.