Best board games for 2 people

[Thekormachameleon]

Give me ideas for board games to play with my 20yo son over Christmas please
Hate monopoly and scrabble, love quizzes

Any recommendations please

Dobble!

I really enjoy wingspan for a 2 player. Also Carcassonne.

Rummikub

Othello
stratego

Backgammon
Chess
The royal game of Ur

Look at co-op board games so you play together against the game , pandemic , ticket to ride, castle panic, for something simpler and quicker zombie dice or get bit are fun

So many great games.

Rivals for catan
Jaipur
Pandemic is easily played with 2.
Odin's ravens
Patchwork
Istanbul the dice game

If you like brain teasers then the exit games are brill. They're one time use escape room type games. Think they're best with 2 people

Zatu.co.uk is a brilliant board games specialist.

For smaller two player games I’d strongly recommend:

Patchwork
Calico
Welcome To
Azul
Splendor Duel

or for a bigger board:

Lords of Waterdeep
The River

but an escape room game might be fun!

The Professor’s Last Riddle

Great minds think alike! A lot of overlap in our cross post!

Backgammon is very addictive once you get the hang of it as is Rummikub

Uni is great

Scattergories

There are some really good quizzes on YouTube sort of fun pub quiz type thing

We play Triominos ( dominos with three sides) for 2 to 8 players and a new game called OK, like Connect Four but with five in a row and without the frame, for 2 to 4 players. Both available from Amazon.

Air land and sea is my favourite two player game. I didn't think I would enjoy it based on the aesthetic, but it's brilliant.

It's very simple to learn but very strategic to play.

The Quacks of Quedlinburg
Escape room

Azul (any of them)
Degradation
Patchwork

OK is good too

Combination card/board game, Cribbage is a good game!

I meant uno

Double
Chess

Hive is great

Slightly derailing the thread but do any of these work well for 3 people?

Most of the ones I suggested are. If you want some good gateway games, nothing to heavy and easy to learn: pandemic, ticket to ride, pandemic, Istanbul the dice game and get on board all work well with three players.

A lot of my suggestions are. Azul, Calico, Welcome To, Lords of Waterdeep and the Exit escape room game would all be great at three.

Patchwork, Hive and Splendor Duel are for two players only.

If you want to save a bit of money, a lot of games mentioned here are available on a website called board game arena. There's a decent free option, but it's £25 for a year or a few quid a month and you can cancel anytime. Paid option means you can share a single laptop or tablet to play together. Use it for a month and it's cheaper than an average supermarket sandwich 😱 Wingspan, catan, Carcassonne, Azul, Jaipur, patchwork, splendor, and ticket to ride definitely are from what I seen skimming this thread, and a ton more too

It'll be loads cheaper than even just a single game, and you can buy physical copies of any you like another time.

I've used it to learn games for running board games nights at board games cafes, and just learning new games for the sake of it