Board games have long fascinated as mirrors of intelligence, skill, cunning and wisdom. While they have been the topic of many scientific studies, and have been studied for more than a century by psychologists, there was until now no single volume summarizing psychological research into board games.

This book, which is the first systematic study of psychology and board games, covers topics such as perception, memory, problem solving and decision making, development, intelligence, emotions, motivation, education and neuroscience. It also briefly summarizes current research in artificial intelligence and critically discusses how current theories of expertise fare with board games.

Finally, it shows that the information provided by board game research, both data and theories, have a wider relevance for the understanding of human psychology.