Brain puzzles are a fun way to keep your mind stimulated when you’re bored. If you’re bored or in your 573975th day of quarantine, try these engaging brain puzzles.
10 Fun Brain Puzzles to Try in Quarantine
1. Sudoku
Sudoku has been one of my go-to number games for as long as I can remember. I love my Sudoku app and quickly inferring keeps my mind active. Grab this 1,000 puzzle easy-to-hard book here to try it out.
2. Hidato
Hidato is a logic puzzle game invented by an Israeli mathematician. The challenge is to fill various shaped grids with consecutive numbers that connect horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, forming a number chain of sorts. On Hidato’s website you can learn more and also play online for free. Additionally, you can grab these books from Amazon to try it out:
3. Nonograms
Nonograms, otherwise known as Paint by Numbers, are puzzles in which you must color in squares on a grid according to the directions to reveal a hidden image in the grid. These are fun for kids and adults alike! Try them out here:
- Picture Cross (app)
- Pixelo (app)
- Nonogram Puzzle Book for Adults
- Paint-doku
- Nonograms: Cartoons
4. Logic Puzzles
I first came across logic puzzles when I solved “Einstein’s riddle.” Whether or not it was created by Einstein, the more advanced versions of these can be extra challenging. Here are a few apps and books where you can try them out:
- Skillz
- Brain it On
- Luminosity
- Perfectly Logical! Challenging Fun Brain Teasers and Logic Puzzles for Smart Kids
- Puzzle Baron’s Logic Puzzles
5. Cryptograms
I’m not that great at cryptograms, but I do enjoy the challenge of them! Cryptograms are puzzles with a piece of encrypted writing. To read the message, you must first decipher the code. Try a few out here.
6. Miscellaneous spy codes
Throughout history, spies have used various codes to keep important information hidden from those with nefarious intent. Put on your spy hat, grab your magnifying glass, and try out codes used throughout the centuries like morse code, phonetic alphabet, tap code, and more. Check out this link to learn more, the try them out for yourself with this free printable.
7. Chess
Chess is competitive board game in which both players attempt to checkmate the other’s king piece, making him unable to move and ending the game. On chess.com you can play for free, or check out the book Chess for Beginners to learn the ins and outs first.
8. Crosswords
Crossword puzzles are word puzzles. The object is to fill all of the white squares in a grid with letters and connect words across the grids using mutual letters. You can play some online for free here, or check out the following crossword puzzle books below:
9. Kakuro
Kakuro is sometimes referred to as the mathematical version of a crossword puzzle. The object is to fill each white square in the grid with a digit from 1 to 9, keeping in mind that the sum of each entry needs to match the clues given with no duplications. You can try this challenging puzzle online here. Or try this paper version.
10. Extreme memorization techniques
A few years ago, I was reading stories of people who have accomplished insane memory feats: 100,000 digits of pie, a shuffled deck of cards in under a minute, and more. They used a trick called the memory palace. With this technique, you’re able to memorize pretty much everything. To get started, try to memorize the Periodic table.
