Spiel Des Jahres is a prize they give every year to a bunch of board games. Don't look at very old board games, but some of the modern ones: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiel_des_Jahres

As for Go, I was tempted, but it's also very abstract, I do like some kind of theme in my board games.

A board game well integrated with the theme gives great vibes.

Some of the games great from there: - Sky Team, discovered right there on the wikipedia page: for 2 players, me and my wife spent countless hours on it. Very simple rules yet so damn fun - Azul up to 4, simple rules and a lot of depths. Place tiles on a board while stealing from others the stuff they want to use - Kingdomino is so simple yet choosing the piece (some form of draft) requires thinking ahead so many turns! - Dominion is still a great game: deck builder with simple rules. Didn't think that was possible? It is!

A lot of the children games are also great (this is for families with kids)

Some nominated are also great, even if they didn't win