Twilight Struggle
"Twilight Struggle" was the highest-ranked game on BoardGameGeek from December 2010 to January 2016. As of August 2018, the board game occupies a fifth spot. Being released in 2005 it is the oldest board game in the overall top 10 ranking.
Robert Charles Bell
Robert Charles Bell (1917–2002) was the author of several books on board games, most importantly "Board and Table Games 1 & 2" (reprinted as "Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations"). This work won the Premier Award of the Doctors' Hobbies Exhibition, London. He was instrumental in popularizing traditional games, and is acknowledged as one of 11 "principal sources" in David Parlett's "The Oxford History of Board Games".