When I was 5 my parents bought me this building block toy
called “Lacy”, I doubt many of you will know what this thing
is. The most unique and popular block in this set is a “H”,
those who have played it should remember it now. That was
like my favourite toy my entire childhood. I used to build all
kinds of things, even making things that are not in the building
guide book. It really helped my analytical skills because of the
different angels I had to think to get what I wanted done. That
was practically the first thinking game I got into.

Then when I was 7, two of my cousins who were already
working by then got me two fascinating games. The first one
was Monopoly and the other was a Chess set. Monopoly was
such a fun game to play with the family, every time my
cousins came around I’d whip out the monopoly set and we’ll
sit in a corner laughing, shouting and having so much fun hehe.
But the game that really captivated me was Chess. The first
day I got it, mom thought me all the rules and we had a test
game, guess what? I beat her in the first game! Lol. From then
onwards I was really fixated in chess. I joined the school chess
club and soon started representing the school on tournaments.
A couple of my uncles were supposedly good in chess; every
time I see them I’ll bug them to have a game with me. Even
if I lost every game I every played with them.

My skill in Chess rapidly improved in the next two years, I
became one of the top players in school and I only couldn’t
beat one uncle by the time I was 10. This improvement kept
increasing till I even represented my University in a prestigious
International tournament, and I even mange to play a game
with a Chinese Grandmaster and get a “Draw” out of it. Now,
no one in my extended family can beat me in chess, but I’m
definitely not the best either. I still get pawned in tournaments
with good players.

When I was about 12, my friends and I started playing another
board game called “Risk”. This game was like nothing I’ve
ever seen before. It was like a computer game on a board :P
Strategies, alliances, manipulation, armies, territories....wow
the whole package!! This game took over the monopoly
sessions i used to have with cousin. Now days every chance
we get, we’ll play Risk instead. Around the same time, I got
into computer games also. Played games like Command and
Conquer, Xcom Apocalypse, Heroes of Might and Magic,
Diablo, War Hammer, War Craft, Counter Strike and a bunch
more. The games I like the most are the RTS games, more
thinking to do then blind hack and slash. I think it really
improves analytical skills and thinking out of the box and not
to mention the other knowledge we get like history and
cultures.

Even my favourite sport has the element of thinking and making
split second decisions to be a good player. I think most sports
have this element though, like tennis, American football, hockey
and a lot more. In my case it’s football (soccer), of course you
can get through this game with pure brute force, but when you
incorporate some thinking into your game it makes you stand
out. Knowing when to pass, when to move forward, when to
move back and when to shoot according to your teams formation
is really important to ensure a good strategy to win a game.
Games like these makes it less boring and a lot more fun. If you
think about it, our whole life is a thinking game, if you don’t
think through life you won’t get very far. So think before you do
things, think before you say things, think before you do anything.
That’s it for this post, hope you all enjoyed it and see ya’ll in the
next one. Peace out ^_^