For the longest time, playing board games has been linked with the development of the mind, especially in young people. According to Dr. Gwen Dewar of Parenting Science, games such as chess and Mastermind help hone a person's logical-mathematical intelligence - brilliance that is often found in scientists, mathematicians and investigators. The history of games dates to the ancient human past. Games are an integral part of all cultures and are one of the oldest form of human social interaction. Games are formalized expressions of play which allow people to go beyond immediate imagination and direct physical activity. A board game is a game that involves counters or pieces moved or placed on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games can be based on pure strategy, chance (e.g. rolling dice), or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal that a player aims to achieve. While the board gaming market is estimated to be smaller than that for video games, it has also experienced significant growth from the late 1990s. A dedicated field of research into gaming exists, known as game studies or ludology. While there has been a fair amount of scientific research on the psychology of older board games (e.g., chess, Go, mancala), less has been done on contemporary board games such as Monopoly, Scrabble, and Risk. Research studies show that board games such as Chutes and Ladders result in children showing significant improvements in aspects of basic number skills such as counting, recognizing numbers, numerical estimation and number comprehension.

Mastermind is a board game with an interesting history. Some game books report that it was invented in 1971 by Mordecai Meirowitz, an Israeli postmaster and telecommunications expert. After many rejections by leading toy companies, the rights were obtained by a small British firm, Invicta Plastics Ltd. The firm originally manufactured the game itself, though it has since licensed its manufacture to Hasbro in most of the world. However, Mastermind is just a clever re-adaptation of an old similar game called 'Bulls and cows' in English, and 'Numerello' in Italian. Actually, the old British game 'Bulls and cows' was somewhat different from the commercial version. It was played on paper, not on a board. Over 50 million copies later, Mastermind is still marketed today! It went on to win the first ever Game of the Year Award in 1973. It also received a Design Center Award, and the Queen's Award for Export Achievement.

Mastermind is a very unique game in its own right, which is played utilizing a disentangling board. This board has a shield toward one side covering a line of four vast openings, and twelve (or ten, or eight, or six) extra lines containing four extensive gaps beside an arrangement of four little gaps. Also, code pegs of six (or more) distinctive colors, with round heads, which will be set in the expansive gaps on the board are needed. Finally, key pegs, some shaded dark, some white, which are level headed and littler than the code pegs are required to be put in the little gaps on the board. There are 1296 different ways of choosing four pegs, where each one is chosen from six colours.(6x6x6x6 = 1296 ways).

One of the two players becomes a Code-maker and the other is Code-breaker. It is chosen at the start between these two players that how many rounds of game they will play. It is to be noted that the number of rounds to be played must be an even number. A pattern of four code pegs is then chosen by the Code-maker, since the replicas are permitted, the player has an option to deploy these pegs of the same color. The pattern is arranged in the four holes by the Code-maker and is hidden from the Code-breaker. This ensures that the Code-breaker finds it very difficult to decipher the enigma!

Now the actual game of 'cat and mouse' begins. Twelve (may be even ten or eight) turns is the thing that the Code-breaker gets the chance to disentangle the arrangement conveyed by his partner. He does as such by organizing a column of code pegs on the unraveling board. At that point, the Code-producer comes into picture by conveying 0 to 4 key pegs in the little gaps of the column. On the off chance that this key peg is colored or black, it suggests that the forecast of the other player is exact both regarding shading and position, while, a white key peg indicates the likelihood of right shade sent in the off base spot.

There may be an instance when there are similar colors in the predication laid down the Code-breaker and it is not feasible to grant a key peg to all of them unless they match the exact number of similar color in the hidden code. Now, if the hidden code is A-A-B-B and the Code-breaker indicates B-B-B-A, the other player ought to grant two colored key pegs for the correct A, nothing for the third A and finally, a colored key peg for the last B. This ensure, that the suspense is kept alive, hiding the fact that the code has a second B in it! Here A and B represent colors that might be used in the table board.

This pattern of guessing, unraveling goes on until one of the thing happens, either the Code-breaker runs out of his chances or he predicts the exact pattern deployed by the Code-maker. The scoring is such that the Code-maker is awarded a point for each prediction that the Code-breaker makes. A bonus point is granted to the Code-maker if the other player doesn't unravels the correct pattern in the last prediction. The winner is obviously the one who has most number of points after finishing the pre-decided number of rounds. Even the score revolving around coloured key pegs placed can be used.

There have been many mathematicians involved in researching concrete solutions to this game. Many number of algorithm have been presented on the world stage. Michiel de Bondt has used one in three 3SAT basics to prove that it can be solved by NP-complete logic. By examining different probabilities to deploy different number of players on the table, more number of holes on the game-board and another set of substantiated colors, different versions of this game have come into existence. Mastermind Secret Search (1997), New Mastermind (2004) and Mini Mastermind (2004) are its latest types.

The trouble level of any of the above can be expanded by treating "vacant" as an extra color or diminished by obliging just that the code's hues be speculated, autonomous of position. Mastermind can also be played with paper and pencil. There is a numeral variety of the Mastermind in which a 4-digit number is guessed. Digital versions have recently overshadowed the board variety as most of the youth spends their free time online!