Pylos

With just four rules, this simple but elegant game from France's legendary Gigamic is easy to learn, and each full game of Pylos takes only 10 or 20 minutes to complete. But its simplicity is deceptive. The game--recognized by Games Magazine's Top 100, Mensa's Top Five Best Games, the Parents' Choice Gold Awards, and France's Oscar du Jouet and As d'Or--falls into that "minutes to learn, a lifetime to master" family of games, like chess or Go. Players stack 1-inch-wide wooden balls (light and dark) on a 9-by-9-inch board to form a pyramid, and whoever places the top ball wins. But clever rules concerning moving and removing the balls will have you second-guessing and thinking ahead to formulate the perfect strategy.