Games and puzzles exercise the mind as well as allow a break from the work-a-day world. On top of that, these puzzle websites are FREE. So get your browser in gear and sharpen your skills; we are going to enjoy the Internet World of Free Puzzles.

Don't shy away from any of these fascinating puzzles just because you may not be familiar with them. Almost all have easy-to-follow directions, and many have excellent introductions and areas where you can check out the rules. Often you just click on the puzzle or maze to open it. Get ready to use your arrow keys on the keyboard or those shown on the screen because there is a lot of cursor moving involved. Many programs use sound effects that can be turned off if you find them a distraction to all your heavy thinking.

Mazes are very popular puzzles and Clickmazes has many Web-based interactive puzzles and mazes. This site has been stumping surfers since 1997, and if you enjoy mazes, this is your Web spot. The home page offers over twenty different types of mazes. The Plank Puzzles are fun as you try to find a route across a crocodile infested swamp with only a handful of often too short planks. Fortunately, the planks are light and old tree-stumps in the swamp will support the boards to serve as temporary bridges. By planning carefully and re-using the planks, you can find your way across the swamp.

Moving up in the world of mazes, you may want to try the 3D tilt mazes where you use three layers that tilt causing a slide/roll motion and are interlinked with lift and drop points. One maze looked especially easy until I realized left turns are not allowed.

Have I sparked your puzzle and problem solving interests? Want to find out if you are Mensa material? Mensa was founded in England in 1946 as a society for bright people; the only qualification for membership was a high IQ. The society welcomes people from every walk of life whose IQ is in the top 2% of the population. Want to find out if you might be Mensa-minded? There is a Mensa website that offers a test of your mental capabilities. The Mensa site challenges you with thirty questions to be complete in thirty minutes - that is one a minute. (See what a good puzzle solver I am?) In response to the first question, "Sally likes 225 but not 224; she likes 900 but not 800, she likes 144, but not 145, which does she like - 1600 or 1700?" I spent more than a minute on that one. How about you? (I'll give you a hint: don't be a "square" about this.)

Another great website for puzzlers is Grey Labyrinth. This site should keep you busy with its twenty most recent puzzles along with their solutions. The Grey Labyrinth always posts one current puzzle that is unsolved. See if you can deduce the answer before it is posted.

Another website called Puzzles.com is a treasure of classic and modern puzzles. This site claims to be the world's best resource for puzzling on the Internet. How about tricky and clever puzzles, baffling and perplexing illusions, unbelievable and incredible tricks, fascinating and cognitive toys, and many other puzzle related things? This site's focus is on the funny, entertaining, intellectual, and educational side of puzzles.

A fun puzzle at this site was the Knossos Labyrinth. You are an architect and you have to restore the labyrinth from fragments of an old plan. You have to decide how to make your way around those ancient walls. Puzzles.com offers other puzzles like Eight Cards, a true classic. Despite the fact you need only simple arithmetic skills to get to the solution. Eight Cards will have you thinking slightly out of the box. The Diamond Puzzle, Three Hares, Testa, and many others will challenge you.

Remember those math puzzles that stumped you back in high school? For some reason, they seem more fun now (maybe because they do not count toward your course grade). Some of them seem just as hard. Remember the traditional crossing river puzzles? Try Puzzle Help to get your brain calculating. A puzzle called Grace, Helen, and Mary will challenge you to figure out how old each girl is.

Is your mind stimulated? Are you tantalized and intrigued? Do you feel like you have changed the flow of neurons in your brain? Puzzle aficionados claim all this is possible through puzzles. And they claim puzzles can easily be habit forming.

One thing is for sure, puzzles are fun and educational and often entice you to think "outside the box."