When comparing Le Havre: The Inland Port vs Chess, the Slant community recommends Chess for most people. In the question“What are the best board games for two players?” Chess is ranked 2nd while Le Havre: The Inland Port is ranked 9th. The most important reason people chose Chess is:
It's been an important mode of entertainment and education for more than a thousand years.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Short play time makes it easy to play this game when you feel like it
Most plays will take less than 30min so it is easy to squeeze in a quick game while dinner is in the oven, at the end of the night before bed, or maybe a quick game before breakfast.
Pro The building dials provide an interesting risk-reward decision to the game
When a player purchases a building tile they place it in the first space of the building dial where it has 0 uses. Each turn the dial moves one increment around, slowly increasing the number of uses each building provides from 0, to 2, 3, 4, and finally to 4 + 1gold. This encourages players to wait longer to activate each building, however, there is the risk that their opponent may use it before them since using a building returns it to the 0 use section of the dial. Additionally, if a building isn't used in the 4+ section, it is removed from the game the next time the dial rotates, which can cost players points at the end of the game. All of this leads to interesting and meaningful decisions about when to activate different buildings in order to maximize their benefit to the player.
Pro Has a quality app on both Android and iOS
The Inland Port app is available for around $5 on both Android and iOS and makes for an excellent opportunity to either try the game before buying the costlier physical version or to learn the game after you already own the physical copy.
Pro Classic
It's been an important mode of entertainment and education for more than a thousand years.
Pro Improves decision making ability
Pro Boosts memory
You are constantly forced to come up with new offensive strategies or defencive strategies, based on what your opponent is doing. Since there are practically infinite ways to play any situation, you will have to think several moves ahead and remember various possible scenarios that might play out in any possible strategy.
Pro Chess can be an enjoyable obsession
Pro Widely available
And if you can't find a chess board, pieces, and even another player, you can make your own.