There are a lot of ways to improve your brain’s working and to make the most of your natural intelligence. And one of the most enjoyable ways is to simply play some games. As it happens, there are a few games in particular which are specifically good for brain training, as it were, and which you might therefore want to play or get into playing if you want to work on your brain. Let’s take a look at some of the best examples of those kinds of games right now. All of the following are worth trying out if you haven’t already.

Magic: The Gathering

Despite having a nerdy reputation, Magic also has a very strong reputation as a brain-training exercise. In fact, Mensa considers it more or less the single best game to play for that reason, better even than chess. Part of the reason is that Magic involves a lot of interacting rules which takes some real intellect to figure out, and it really is a workout at the best of times. If you want to try it out without spending loads of money on collectible cards, you can buy some cheaper Magic proxy cards first while you learn the game.

Chess

Of course, this is probably the first game that people think about when they are trying to find a game that’s good for the mind. And there is no doubt that chess fulfills that considerably. If you were to play chess daily, you would probably find that you do indeed gain some intelligence, and if you think about the ideal of someone with a high IQ, a chess grandmaster might be the kind of image that comes to mind. It’s definitely worth learning if you haven’t done so already, or playing more if you have. This article by Misha Solodovnikov talks about what is happening in the chess world to give you a deeper insight into the game.

Go

More obscure than chess is the game of Go, which is another ancient board game that is renowned for being particularly difficult to play and especially to master. A thoroughly mathematical game, Go is one that can take quite a long time to learn, and yet the rules are relatively simple too, so anyone can get into it if they have the time and the patience to do so. All in all, Go is well worth trying out, and it is definitely something that will give you the chance to get your brain warmed up. You might even find you get quite addicted to trying to beat it.

Poker

Although people don’t often think of poker in these terms, the truth is that winning poker requires more than just luck: it also requires a good understanding and use of statistics and probabilities, combined with a keen social awareness. Those are both important kinds of intelligence, so playing a lot of poker is bound to help you develop those somewhat. You might be amazed at how much this helps, and it’s the kind of thing that is definitely worth trying out if you want to expand your horizons somewhat in the future.