9 Fun Games to Play With Two People

1. MANCALA

Mancala is a traditional two person board game commonly played around Africa, some parts of Asia, and Europe. It is played with stones, seeds or pebbles and rows of holes in the floor or board. The board has 12 holes and sometimes two storages. Each player has six holes facing them and a storage (if any). The game not only kills boredom but also teaches people to be strategic and calculative.

HOW TO PLAY

Place 4 pebbles in each hole and decide who starts the game. A player can start from any hole on their side but should be calculative since the goal of the game is to win the highest numbers of pebbles. After a player has picked pebbles from the chosen hole, s/he must place a pebble in each succeeding holes going anti-clockwise round the board until their pebbles finish. Both players take turns to play. A player wins pebbles when they put a pebble in a hole containing not more than two pebbles.

A stricter rule dictates that where the last pebble enters determines if a player can pick wins from preceding holes. If the last pebble is placed in a hole containing 3 or more pebbles, that player does not pick wins from preceding holes. The game ends when a player has cleared all pebbles from all 6 holes. The winner is the player that has the largest number of pebbles at the end of the game.

2. CHESS

The game of chess is played by millions of people around the world for fun or competitively to win prizes. This board game requires players to be focused, strategic, patient, quick thinkers, and relentless. The game is played on a board with 64 squares and with movable 32 pieces. Each player starts with 16 pieces: a king, a queen, two rooks,  two knights, two bishops, and 8 pawns. When setting up the board, it is important to remember that the queen must be placed on a square that matches her color.

HOW TO PLAY

The white piece always starts the game and then each player takes turns to move their piece. Pawns only move forward and capture opponents diagonally. The rooks move in a cross-like formation while bishops move diagonally. Knights are freer than other pieces since they can jump other pieces to make their move and the queens are the most powerful piece in the game.  Checkmate is the ultimate goal of playing and for it to happen, the king has to be put in check it cannot get out of. When this happens, the game is over. Did you know that the shortest number of moves to achieve checkmate is just two? Yes, two! Since chess moves are complex, everything cannot be explained in this article. Check other articles and videos that explain this game in depth.

3. CHECKERS

Checkers also known as Draughts is a popular and interesting two player strategy game played on a 10 x10 board. It requires focus, patience, decisiveness, and memorization. The checkers board is similar to a chessboard with 64 light and dark squares on it. It is played with 24 flat pieces; 12 pieces in a light color, and the other 12 in a dark color. If you are looking for games to play with your buddies or for husband and wife games, checkers should top your list.

HOW TO PLAY

The game is easy. When setting the board, all the play pieces can only be placed on the dark squares. Opponents are expected to decide who takes the light or dark pieces. The player with the dark pieces always starts the game and then both players take turns to play. Players can only move their checkers one pace forward diagonally except when they want to capture two of their opponents checkers at a go. An opponent’s checker is captured by jumping over it to the next dark square. A checker can only be captured diagonally. None of the checkers has special functions or rank but can attain the title ‘king’ when they cross over to the edge of the opponent’s side of the board. The goal of each player is to eat as many opponent pieces as possible and get as many king pieces as possible.

4. NINE MEN’S MORRIS

Nine men’s morris or mill as some people call it is another interesting two player strategy game. This game dates back to the Roman empire and possibly ancient Egypt. It is played on a concentric square board with 24 points or dots and 18 movable pieces; 9 dark pieces and 9 light pieces. Both players will decide who takes the light pieces since it starts the game. This game is similar to the tic tac toe game but more advanced.

HOW TO PLAY

Each player takes turns to put their men on the board with the aim of forming a mill. A mill is formed by getting three men (play pieces) together in a row. This could be done horizontally or vertically. When this happens, the opponent loses one of their men that is not in a mill. When both players have their 9 men on the board, they can only move their men to an adjacent dot on the line. A player cannot skip a dot or jump another play piece while making their moves until a player’s men has been drastically reduced to 3. The game is won when a player’s men has been reduced to two.

5. HIVE

The Hive game was designed by John Yianni in 2001. The game is played with 22 hexagonal tiles that mimic the beehive when put together. Each player receives 11 tiles of either two colors (black and white). On each tile are different bug symbols and they dictate how tiles move during the game. This game can be played on any flat and hard surface since it is not dependent on a preset board. It is a really fun game to have and play with friends and family.

HOW TO PLAY

The goal of each player is to capture the queen bee of their opponent. They start by taking turns to introduce their tiles to the board. It is expected that by the fourth tile, the queen bee should have been introduced. The more tiles added to the game, the more the battle to capture the opponents’ queen bee intensifies. The Beetle and Queen Bee can only move one space at a time, however, unlike the Bee, the Beetle can move on top of other bugs in the hive. When this happens, the movement of that bug is limited until the beetle moves. The grasshopper hops its ways through the hive to the next unoccupied space in the connected tiles. The spider moves three paces per turn. The soldier ant can move from its position to any position around the hive and this makes it very powerful. When a player’s queen bee is surrounded with both his/her tiles and that of the opponent, the player has lost the game.

6. CONNECT 4

The game of connect 4 also called Four-in-a-line, is played with a grid board and 42 flat pieces. The grid board comes in different sizes but the commonly used one is the 6×7 grid board and 42 discs. The rule of the game is similar to that of Noughts and Crosses, the only difference is the number of game play players have. This is a great game for two adults.

HOW TO PLAY

Players take turns to drop colored discs into the grid with the aim of connecting four of their discs together before their opponent does. The connection can be done vertically, horizontally or diagonally and players need to be strategic. They should be able to read or anticipate their opponents’ moves and block them from winning. The player that makes the connection first is the winner.

TWO PERSON CARD GAME

7. JAIPUR

This fun two player game was created by Sebastien Pauchon in 2009. This is a game of luck as it is of strategy. Players assume the role of merchants who trade goods cards for tokens and one must emerge as the best trader. The winner wins two seals of excellence and is invited to the court of the Maharaja. If you are looking for fun games to play with your spouse when bored, you should get this.

HOW TO PLAY

The game starts with 3 camel cards faced up between players. An extra two cards is randomly drawn from a shuffled deck and placed next to the camel cards. The cards drawn could also be camel cards. Each player is dished five cards from the deck and the rest of the pile is kept face down, ready for trade. If a player receives any camel card, he places it infront of both players as it forms his or her own herd.  Players take turns to play. A player can either sell or take cards when it’s their turn. When players take cards, they exchange it for other value goods cards and when a player sells cards, they get tokens. Since the process of the game is a bit lengthy, we advise that you check many videos on how to play the game.

8. PICO 2

Pico 2 is one of the simplest card games out there and fun too. It is an 11 card game with numbers ranging from 4-13 and then 16. Players need luck rather than strategy to win this game. If you are looking for a game easy, not mind boggling and just fun for two adults, Pico 2 is great.

HOW TO PLAY

Each player is given 5 cards from 11 cards and the extra card is kept aside. Both players select a card from their 5 cards and reveal them unanimously. The card with the highest number wins. However, if the smaller number is more than twice smaller than the bigger number, then the smaller number wins. For example, in a round of 8 and 4, 8 wins but in a round of 8 and 3 or 2, the smaller number wins. The winning card is then removed from the play and placed in front of the player. The losing number remains in play. This is repeated until a player has one card left. At the end of the game, the players get the total score of the cards that won. They repeat the play for a second round and then total the score of the first and second round to get their winner.

TWO PERSON TRIVIA GAME

9. QUIZUP

If you wish to challenge your friend or spouse to a one on one trivia game, then it’s time to get this quizup mobile app. Quizup is a trivia app game where players can pick topics and challenge their friends or strangers to a match. Players have 10 seconds to answer each question they are presented with. Each round consists of 7 questions and the faster and accurate a player answers are, the more points they score. The great thing about this trivia app is that there are so many topics to choose from. You can download the app on google play store, App store and Sensor tower

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What games can two people play when bored?

Every game on our list is fun, competitive and a perfect bore killer. Get Connect 4, Nine men’s Morris and Checkers, it is a great chill out game, not mentally tasking but rather stimulating. At the same time, you and your friend or spouse is guaranteed to have a great time.

Which two player games can a person play at home?

Pick any game from our list, they are fun stay-at-home games. Mancala, Jaipur, sling puck and Connect 4 are really cool games

CONCLUSION

If you were looking for a list of two player games, we hope that you found our article interesting. Although there are a lot of games out there that two people can play, however, some of these games also accommodate more players and this was not the focus of this article. This article strictly focuses on 2 player games. Most of the games are very easy to understand while some may take you a little more time to grasp. We encourage that you check out a couple of videos onlines to get a better understanding of how to play these games.