Backgammon
Backgammon is one of the oldest known board games. Its history can be traced back nearly 5,000 years to archeological discoveries in the Middle East, originally in Iran. It is a two player game where each player has fifteen pieces ("checkers") which move between twenty-four triangles ("points") according to the roll of two dice. The objective of the game is to be first to "bear off", i.e. move all fifteen checkers off the board. Backgammon is a member of the tables family, one of the oldest classes of board games.
Dots and Boxes
Dots and Boxes is a pencil-and-paper game for two players (sometimes more). It was first published in the 19th century by Édouard Lucas, who called it la pipopipette. It has gone by many other names, including the game of dots, boxes, dot to dot grid, and pigs in a pen.
Starting with an empty grid of dots, two players take turns adding a single horizontal or vertical line between two "unjoined" adjacent dots. The player who completes the fourth side of a 1×1 box earns one point and takes another turn. (A point is typically recorded by placing a mark that identifies the player in the box, such as an initial.) The game ends when no more lines can be placed. The winner is the player with the most points. The board may be of any size. When short on time, a 2×2 board (a square of 9 dots) is good for beginners. A 5×5 is good for experts.