Internet Diplomacy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Diplomacy 

Sumwat close to chess or similar may be. But fun....All bout strategy. 

True that, or when someone runs out of patience.

My friends and me often do this on a thursday night after our afternoon social drink event ("borrel"). But then we want to go out to town and we kinda need to rush the game.

Mensch erger je niet 

Indeed.  I keep trying to add a Shogi section to my Chess tournaments in Michigan, but I can't rustle up playes. Chess960 and Xiangqi are other variants that have attracted marginal interest.  The truth is I would hold a tournament in any abstract strategy game if I could find six players that were interested.

If anyone lives near Detroit, and has interest in games other than Chess, here's some information:  http://gamesinmichigan.com/chessforcharity/chess960.htm.

As for my favorite game other than Chess?  Too hard to decide. Lately, I'll play almost any abstract strategy game, and my favorite is whatever I happen to be playing at the time.  However, if someone starts up a game of Cosmic Encounter near me, I might just drop everything to go play.

Big Backgammon fan. I also like Scrabble.

Go though I am the equivilant of a Patzer in it, at least I don't fall for the Ladder trap

I do like actual checkers on a 10x10 board, but I don't get to play a lot of people. Usually they don't share my interest in it, and I beat casual players easily.

I like Shogi and Xiangi too, though I only played it casually online. Basically I like all board games with some kind of strategy in it.

after looking at this game, there is no way a person could like a game more than Chess

Risk, D&D and scrabble 

Stratego! This is a game in which NO ONE can beat me, not even computers! It reminds me of chess 960 but all the pieces are covered so you do not know the ranks of your opponents pieces.

Any game that is strategic or just requires thinking. Chess and Go are the main two, though.

For the PC Civilization. 

Ooo Ralph! Absolutely! Do you play civ4 online?

I have resisted the temptation so far, I am too busy at present. I have spent many hours sitting in front of the PC not wanting to go to bed until I have got over a crucial stage in the game. 

Civ 4 is boss. Nothing more addictive.

Pim pam pet and Khet

Advanced Squad Leader and it has only a 300+ page rulebook, and also Stratego.

Right now, I'm enjoying a proprietary card game named "7 Wonders".  I guess you would classify it as an empire-building game.

But I am totally fascinated by chess variants...the parallel universes of chess.  I'm particularly interested in "Ultima" a variant in which pieces move like queens, but make captures in a variety of different ways.

Here's a page explaining "Ultima":

http://www.chessvariants.org/other.dir/ultima.html

You can find out more about the vast universe of chess variants, and play them online, here:

http://www.chessvariants.org

Amy