Having a high IQ can certainly be beneficial when you have to make quick decisions or come up with a solution by analyzing the data at hand. But, even if you think that you have a particularly sharp mind, you may still want to put your skills to the test. Many games are specially designed to assess your intelligence and attention to detail. So, if you want to challenge your friends and have a great time together, these games can come in handy. Think that you can rise to the occasion and impress your friends with your skills?
Check the next few points to find out for sure whether you are actually as smart as you think!
Throw a Game Night
To keep the mood light and put your skills to the test, you invite your friend for a game night. While there are many board games you can opt for, most of them depend on luck rather than real intelligence. Instead, you can go for any of the following suggestions that improve and evaluate your cognitive abilities.
Chess
Want to win a game that will earn you bragging rights forever? Then, chess might be the right game for you. Although chess is notoriously known to be extremely difficult, you can dominate game night once you get the rules down. You will, of course, need a chess set to play the game. After you purchase your set, you need to familiarize yourself with the pieces. Each player gets 16 pieces: the king, the queen, two rooks, two knights, eight pawns, and two bishops. Every piece has a certain range of movement, and the objective of the game is to “checkmate” your opponent’s king by using your pieces to attack or surround him. To be better at chess, there are some expert strategies you can employ, such as using your pawns and moving your king away to protect him early on in the game. However, even if you do not have a specific strategy in mind, you can depend on careful planning to come out on top. Certainly, chess requires a high IQ, so if you end up defeating your friends, that will say a lot about your analytical skills! To hone your chess skills even more you can check this out and see how it's going to guide you through your future games.
Scrabble
If you are a master of words and think that you have an extensive vocabulary, why not invite your friends to play a friendly game of Scrabble? Scrabble relies on the players’ ability to form words using scrambled letters. The great thing about this game is that it needs two or more players, so feel free to invite all your friends to join in the fun! Every player can hold up to eight tiles at once to form words. Nonetheless, not all words help you earn the same points since the ones that contain uncommonly used letters like “z” or “x” or have suffixes and prefixes are worth extra points. To prep for this game, you can use an online word finder to know all the combinations you can form with certain letters. You may also use this tool at the end of your game to discover which words you and your friends missed. Overall, Scrabble is a fantastic way to prove that you might have been a spelling bee champion in a past life!
Mahjong
Mahjong is an Asian tile game that tests players’ reflexes and the ability to spot patterns. A mahjong set consists of 136 or 144 tiles, depending on the one you get. Each tile has a different meaning; some have drawings like bamboo or flowers while others have characters (numbers). To try your hand at mahjong, you need three other people to join you. Your goal is to organize your tiles into two pairs (matching tiles) and four sets. The sets can contain three consecutive characters or three matching tiles. The players start the game by shuffling the tiles and rolling the dice to decide who draws their 13 tiles first. This player then discards one of their tiles and draws a new one from the pool. Throughout the game, you should keep drawing and discarding tiles until you form two pairs and four sets. The first one to achieve this should say “sik wu”! If you are looking for a way to impress your friends with your quick reflexes and a keen eye for detail, there is no better option than mahjong.
Playing games with your companions is an amazing means of strengthening your bond and engaging in some friendly competition. Whether you end up going for chess, Scrabble, or mahjong, your game night will definitely be a success. However, remember not to go overboard by being too concerned about proving that you are smarter than your friends because it can be quite off-putting. After all, you can be quite smart and still manage to lose a few rounds!
