Abstract strategy games are generally board games designed without any clear
application to real life, or similarity to real situations. Usually, these
games are perfect information games, with no element of randomness or chance.
The most venerable of these games include chess and go, along with their
lesser-known brethren such as mancala, shogi, chinese chess (xian'qi),
and draughts (checkers). Other, more recent games, include Twixt,
Othello (Reversi), Hex, Pente, and so forth. Generally, the more recent
games have less developed professional systems, and are less thoroughly
analyzed.
The fans of abstract strategy games argue that games of perfect information
are the only way players can be sure that it is their skill which determines
their results, and not blind luck. This is true; even in highly strategic games with random elements, such as bridge, many games are required to make sure that the best team actually wins. However, this leads to what
some see as a major drawback: brute force calculations will
eventually solve every perfect information game. Forget artificial
intelligence, any perfect information game will eventually fall to advanced
searching algorithms. Thus the much-publicised case of Kasparov vs. Deep
Blue, and its subsequent impact on the public image of chess. Granted, games
such as go, with its exponentially larger move tree, present a more daunting
problem for programmers, but computer go programs will eventually
reach the professional level of play. Of course, this doesn't change the fact
that go and chess, and many other abstracts, are deeply strategic and
interesting when played between humans, but it costs the games prestige and
interest when a computer is the best player in the world.
The games themselves
Do note that this list is not exhaustive, and the games do differ in
popularity, development, depth, and age.