I love Scrabble, I played it a few times with my brothers and it was one of my favorites. Chess caught my attention but I never dedicated myself to learn it, it seems to be quite complicated.
On the other hand, that reason you mention that you prefer board games to competitive sports because most of them you can play them individually without being blamed in case you lose, I loved it!
I played basketball during college. I was blamed.
I played baseball, I was also blamed. ahahah