Game of the year

Everyone knows the awards for movies (Oscars), television (Emmies), music (Grammies), and theatre (Tonies). They’re all American awards. The premiere award for board games, however, comes from Germany.

The awards, for “family game of the year,” are judged by a panel of board game critics. They have been going since 1978 and have awarded such excellent titles as The Settlers of Catan, Codenames, Dominion, Dixit, Carcassonne, and Ticket to Ride.

Since 1989 they’ve also given a children’s game award (although many of those titles don’t get translated into English), and since 2011 they’ve also given a connoisseur’s game of the year, to cover the burgeoning field of more complex and intricate board games.

• Spiel des Jahres