Sharpening those wits... I'm thinking sudoku, crosswords, riddles... do you like any brainy games like these?
I games and puzzles.
I have sudoku on my phone and use it mostly at night to send myself to sleep....
I think we've been down this road before. I like e-solitaire. I have found tricks that can be used for when playing with cards. One can fudge and if you don't win can play over and redo some things. I now win some 75% of the time.
I also do crosswords. I look for the medium difficulty so I can add extra strategies: in ink, backwards, left-handed and, when possible, go from one corner to the opposite one with as few words as possible.
My late partner once asked me to teach her checkers. I won the first two games and then it was all over. She beat me every time. She then asked me to teach her to play chess. No way, I needed to at least keep some of my dignity!
I do crossword puzzles, not the super brainy Sunday New York Times puzzles, but the progressively harder ones in large puzzle books, like the Simon and Schuster ones. It is sometimes fascinating to see how one's mind works when, for example, you come up with a word, name, etc., that you haven't used or remembered hearing for years, or even decades. Or, to figure out an answer by some obscure or seemingly unrelated clue.
One of my best friends travels a lot with his job, and is always bringing home cool games to play with his friends and family. It's through him that the kids and I were first exposed to Dixit, Gloom, Exploding Cows, and several others (whose names are french so we had to play with his wife acting as an interpreter). Usually, I like to jump right in so we can learn to play; I digest the rules better that way.
I am an avid Board game player and Eurogames are my favorite which often are very puzzly. I find them to be great exercise for your brain and loads of fun.
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