Many people don't take game playing seriously. That's perfectly fine; unless you want to win. There are also people that want to win AND have fun. If you're one of those people, or if you want to be one of those people, this article can help. Without further ado, here are five tips to winning more games:

1. Concentrate. Learn to focus on the game and on the important information within the game. You will probably have to learn to fully concentrate. The best way to learn is to try concentrating on one thing and shutting out all other disturbances. You should be able to concentrate more fully if you practice every day. Chess is an example of one game that requires good concentration.

2. Give your brain more oxygen. Don't hyperventilate. Just breathe slowly and steadily to maintain high oxygen to the brain. Your brain uses about 20% of the oxygen you breathe. If you don't breathe correctly, it's like running a race car on low-octane fuel. See "BREATHE for your own good..." (http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=145168).

3. Calculate chances. In many board games, dice games, and other chance games, it can be beneficial to learn some basic laws of probability. In games such as Yahtzee!, this knowledge can make a huge difference. Check out the Wikipedia article on probability (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probability).

4. Narrow your choices. Almost all games have choices you must make on every turn. If you weed out all the poor choices quickly, you can spend more time deciding between good moves, and you can find the best move. (If that is possible in your game.)

5. Research specific strategy on your own game. There are articles on the Internet about strategies and tactics for almost any game. A search for 'chess strategy' in major search engines yields millions of results. You might also consider looking up Wikipedia articles on the subject or getting books from your towns' library.


Jon Hartford is the webmaster of http://computergames.awardspace.com, a free online gaming site.