Games from age 8 for planning, puzzling and playing together

In our collection, Chess is recommended from age 8. The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University counts strategy games among the good ways for 7- to 12-year-olds to practise. Children keep moves in mind, plan several steps ahead and adapt their plan to their opponent's moves. With practice, they can become really good at classics such as chess or Go. Shorter strategy games with few rules, such as Pentago or Quoridor, are a good way to get started.

Often, yes. The recommended age is the publisher's assessment, not a fixed limit; that is why this page shows games that the publisher recommends from age 7 or age 8. Whether a game suits your child also depends on their experience of playing games, their reading ability and their patience. It can help to play the first games with the cards face up, to leave out special rules or to play in a team with an adult. If it does not work yet, put the game away for a few months and then try again.

You should not expect miracles. A review of interventions for 4- to 12-year-olds lists non-digital games among the activities that can improve children's executive functions. Repeated practice and tasks that keep presenting a challenge were crucial; in addition, the progress tended to transfer only narrowly, to similar demands. For everyday life, this means playing regularly and with plenty of variety and increasing the difficulty as soon as something becomes easy. In the edition reviewed, Rush Hour, for example, offers 40 challenges at four levels.

Many, because a good part of the selection consists of family games that are not aimed only at children. Several have won the Spiel des Jahres (German game of the year award), a critics' award presented by a jury of games critics. They won the main award, not the separate Kinderspiel des Jahres (German children's game of the year award): Dixit (2010), Qwirkle (2011), Hanabi (2013), Azul (2018), Just One (2019), Pictures (2020) and Dorfromantik: The Board Game (2023). Hanabi, Just One and Dorfromantik: The Board Game are also cooperative: everyone wins or loses together.