As someone who has played international checkers (the 10x10 board), chess, go and bridge (although only chess and bridge in a club) I can concur. Bridge has the

As someone who has played international checkers (the 10x10 board), chess, go and bridge (although only chess and bridge in a club) I can concur. Bridge has the analytical dimension (at least with duplicate bridge), and compared to e.g. Klaverjassen or Belotte, the rules are very simple. (There is some complexity in the bidding part of bridge, but bidding can be postponed in the initial stages when learning the game) Just as the rules for international checkers are easier then the rules of chess, it is much more difficult to play very well. (While in e.g. chess you have much usage of heuristics like a rook is better then a knight, these simple heuristics do not work as well in international checkers). As bridge also had the psychological dimension (trying to trick your opponent by faking a finesse), I agree it teaches life lessons that can help you further down the road. (Furthermore: while chess is often a game of two - the classical variant is two players playing one game in the evening on the chess club, hardly talking at all - bridge is a more social game. Personal bonus for me: chess means either success of failure, while with bridge you can play e.g. 28 games in one evening, and go away with those 3 beautiful hands you played while forgetting the 5 times you blundered). The only game I find more elegant is Go, but I find the time necessary to play a single game to long (and in the Western world there are not that many simple to find opponents).