What’s the most popular board game in Nevada?

Nevadans love to play games — its casinos are full of them.

But for family-centered board games, Nevada falls into the majority of states finding chess to be their most popular board game, based on a study by worldofcardgames.com analyzing Google search requests by state.

According to the site, Nevadans searched for chess, “board game,” “how to play,” and “rules” an average 5,375 times a month in the World of Card Games study involving searches on 605 different games analyzed through the Google Keyword Planner.

“Chess is a cultural touchstone, with terms such as ‘checkmate’ being a staple of the English language,” a spokesman for World of Card Games said. “It has been studied for centuries, and skill at the game is considered shorthand for a person’s intelligence. It has even seen a new wave of popularity in recent years as more people learn of its intricacies. It is fitting then that chess is Nevada’s most popular board game.”

The spokesman said it would be interesting to see if chess continues to grow in popularity in the coming years and how that might impact how people play the game online and offline, both professionally and at the amateur level.

The nine most popular board games for Nevadans after chess:

— Checkers, with an average of 2,627 monthly searches, another ancient game, with variations dating from 3000 BC.

— Monopoly (average 1,906 searches), created in 1932 as a criticism of capitalism.

— Clue (average 1,366 searches), a murder mystery game in which players deduce a suspect, location and murder weapon, also known as “Cluedo” outside North America.

— Mancala (average 681 searches), one of the oldest games still being played. With origins in East Africa, there are historic versions of the game played as early as 5870 BC.

— Rummikub (average 254 searches), game involving 106 numbered tiles in four colors, with the objective of forming same-numbered groups and runs.

— Pictionary (average 200 searches), a game in which players draw pictures to get a partner to guess a word.

— Chinese checkers (average 128 searches), played on a board in the shape of a six-pointed star and invented in Germany in 1892, the object is to move 10 marbles to the opposite side of the board by jumping over marble pieces.

— Shogi (average 74 searches), also known as Japanese chess, with the difference that captured pieces can be returned to the board by the capturing player.

— Settlers of Catan (average 71 searches), a game invented in 1995 with multiple characters and variations.

Nevada generally falls in line with the rest of the country in terms of what games it finds most popular.

Of the 50 states, 47 of them had their top three games as chess, checkers and Monopoly.

In Kansas and Wyoming, checkers was most popular, followed by chess. In Nebraska, the order of popularity was checkers, Monopoly and Clue.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.