Yeah… everytime I see it in movies I kinda cringe. However it still is an effective narrative tool to say that the person is a stategist or is in a higher tax bracket ( or honestly any quality that the common viewer doesn’t have). Even so, I wish writers would stop doing this.
I apologize if my recommendations are not what you are looking for but have you tried:
Disco Elysium? Cuz that game blew my fucking mind. I voice acting and characters are superb.
Signalis. Its such a lovely artsy game thats like resident evil but more story driven imo (less survival).
I love poe2 with wasd movement. I beg you to try it out. It was something i was hesitant at first but now I wish all arpg’s had this feature.
Kenshi is also a great option but I don’t think its for everyone. Still recommend it though cuz the world is very mysterious in first playthrough.
I dont play a lot of chess and I’m bad at it but I recommend playing chess puzzles or timed chess. If it helps, just think of it as a mini skermish on one area of the “map”.
While there is competitive chess, I think the advantage it has over most things is that many people know how to play and that most of the time its a casual background game. Like you aren’t trying to win, you are trying to not lose.
When someone is playing at a house party, it’s so much fun to make wierd faces after they played a move or so.