Please recommend a good 2 player board game for ds(10)

[WeAllHaveWings]

ds(10) loves board games and we get a new one each year for me and him to play, dh hates them so its mostly 2 player games we play.

He has accumulated a few over recent years and favourites are:

• Uno Extreme (going strong for 4 years now)
• Standard Card Games (we have a book)
• Cludeo Simpsons
• Scrabble/Banagrams (sometimes)
• Monopoly (+ Monopoly card game)
• Survive: Escape from Atlantis

Following which get good reviews, but didn't go down so well with him (and are gathering dust in the cupboard):

• Labyrinth
• Ingenious (and another similar one I forget the name of)
• Q-Bitz
• Tri-ominos/Dominos
• Lego Games (Harry Potter, Minotaur and a couple of others)
• Pictureka/Pictionary
• Monopoly Millionaire / Hotel Tycoon (poor versions of monopoly)

(above make me think he wouldn't enjoy Qwirkle or Blokus)

Need a brilliant game for this year to drag him away from the Xbox

Have seen lots of strong recommendations for Ticket to Ride on here , but watched a YouTube review last night to get an idea of the game play and it looks a bit complicated/tedious - was it just a bad review?

Settlers of Catan are 3+ players

Any recommendations for Carcassonne or Small World for a 10 year old and only 2 players?

Think chess would bore him just now.

All suggestions welcome!!!

sorry that's really long!!!!!!!

Dd got chess for her birthday and it hasn't been touched.

Jenga is cheap and cheerful ( one of my favourite games )
Guess who is still popular here
Game of life
Risk ( adictive )
Dd wants 'adventure time' monopoly
Creationary

I'm thinking of Tetris Link for DS10. Not sure why and have not read any reviews yet.

We play Smallworld with 2 players. Its better with more players but we still have fun. Your ds seems to like card games - have you seen Flux. We have Pirate flux and find it fun, although obviously even more fun with more players. We also like the fact that dd can join in partway through if she wants to, and she can leave when she doesn't pick up the cards that she wants. We've also enjoyed lots of Downfall this week.

There's a Settlers of Catan card game
Dominion is great fun
9yo DS happily plays 2 player Small World, although I think it is better with at least 3.
He also likes Citadels, and will play it with just DH.
Carcassonne works with 2, although is probably better with more.
How about a card game like Phase 10 or SkipBo?

DS (11) loves Go For Broke but it's mine from childhood - don't know if you can still get it! He also is a fan of The Game of Life and Family Trivial Pursuit. Risk is good fun and there is a Star Wars version out.

Othello?
Mastermind still v popular here (and over quickly)
yahtzee
Forbidden Island

Ticket to ride is OK as a two player game but a lot of the strategy only comes in when you have more players.

Carcassonne would be a good choice, either the original which has lots of expansion options or the hunters and gatherers version.

Other ones we have which work well with two players are hare and tortoise, roll through the ages, dominion, tantrix and bohnanza.

Ticket to Ride came out of its box on Boxing Day last year and hasn't been touched since, it managed to turn 3 jolly adults and 2 happy DC into snappy, snarling grumps within 25 minutes.
Mastermind is good as is Mah-Jong for 2.

Battleships
Downfall
Family Trivial Pursuit

We're thinking about Othello and/or Mastermind for this Christmas.

Jaipur is great! And othello is Gun!

Fun, not gun!

Othello is a fantastic game ,fun for children and really tactical for over competitive people.

We have othello, go for broke, game of life, battleships and family trivial pursuit which come out now and again (all these and some of the others are mine from the 1980s!)

Thank you for all the suggestions, you've confirmed my thoughts that the more strategic games aren't as good with only two players and they are a bit expensive to just add to the pile in the cupboard. Forgot about Risk, remember enjoying that in my own childhood, but it was my brothers game so i don't have it. Lots of other games I haven't heard of before, will start googling them now!

Would love to know what you decide as I'm still confused. X

The original pay day is excellent. I don't know if they still make it but you can buy from ebay. We play this all the time with dd 5 and her cousins 9 and 11
It's definitely our favourite

Scattegories
Chess
Code Breaker

What about buying a deck.of cards and teaching him some card games?

Rubik's Race is great.

That makes two of us then .

Like the look of the Tetris game and think I'll get that, as it reasoably cheap.

Want a board game too, and really liked Risk but the current versions playing pieces look bad and get bad reviews, tried looking at the old version on eBay but the world map has changed a lot in 20-25 years (Ukraine has shrunk massively!) and I don't want to teach ds the wrong geography (that sounds a bit silly when I write it down).

After watching a couple of youtube reviews Small world is a contender just now, but may change as I look at more.

Backgammon, a classic and rightly so, it is very addictive and accessible at lots of levels

For two players I'd really recommend the rivals for Catan - two player card based version of the larger game. The intro game is reasonably simple but absorbing and you can build up to more complex versions. What I really like is that it's not too fiercely competitive - more based on having a good strategy than sabotaging each other iyswim.

Hey that's my fish is one that's equally fun for 2-4 players.

We have a 2 player version of Carcassonne called The Castle, its v v good, I highly recommend it.

Also Hera and Zeus or Lost Cities (technically card games rather than board games).

I have played Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne as a two player game lots of times - it's a different sort of game, but it doesn't kill the theory like, say, 3 player cleudo does.