How to win at 5 classic board games

BuzzFeed compiled game winning strategies from Datagenics, BoardGameGeeks & About.com to bring you the ultimate game winning strategies for Monopoly, Chess, Battleship, Connect 4 and Hungry Hungry Hippos. Warning: These awesome tips might ruin friendships.

Monopoly: Buy everything you land on! Don't buy property sets already owned by more than one player. Build houses on your lowest valued properties first. These properties cost less and are worth it early on. Later in the game, stay in jail for as long as you can. You'll keep earning money, and pay nothing. The orange properties are the most valuable. They are the most landed on, due to their location from jail.

Connect 4: Drop your disc in the bottom, middle column. Even if both players play perfectly, you will always win within 41 moves.

Chess: Checkmate in 4 moves. Using your bishop for protection, move the queen in for the kill. Checkmate!

Hungry Hungry Hippos: Don't just mash the lever, keep the mouth propped open. Hold down the lever about 2/3 of the way down. Stray balls will roll into your mouth. Yum.

Battleship: When hunting for enemy ships, imagine the ocean as a checkerboard. Never strike within one space of a miss. This will cut the need for random guessing by half. If you hide smaller ships at a "t," your opponent may be fooled, and may decide to attack elsewhere.