WINNER! Crush your loved ones at Connect Four this Christmas

Using science to own old-school games

With Christmas Day within sight, it's time to dust off your Monopoly set and concentrate on your Settler's strategy. Or, maybe, consider some new board-game purchases. It's not just me caught up in this wave of nostalgia - venerated institution the Victoria and Albert Museum is hosting a major board game retrospective. Of late, games clubs - such as the one in Hackney where your correspondent is practising her potentially world class Carcassonne skills for next year's UK games Expo - seem to be springing up like weeds."