As a card-carrying member of the Elite Geek Corps, I have an obligation to be a fan of board games. Now, as fun as a game of Monopoly or Risk can be, I tend to prefer the more abstract board games, as these tend to forgo the random element that can make an otherwise stellar game of Settlers of Catan, Risk, or Magic: the Gathering go terribly awry. Some of my favorites: Go, of course. And chess, in all its, though the only variant I have ever played more than a couple of times is standard Western chess. I also dig Reversi/Othello.

I've been looking into other abstract board games recently. Here are a few that seem interesting to me.