Good Two Person Boardgames?

I'm not a big fan of 2-player boardgames, because they're not really social enough.

However, I have enjoyed some "trading card games" on that level - because there's a lot of "meta" stuff in them, and you can always evolve them to include more players.

I've had the best experiences with Magic the Gathering and Middle Earth the Wizards. The latter is pretty much like a board game, except with cards

Oh, METW might be very hard to get - as it hasn't been produced in years, AFAIK.

But there it is, anyway.

I don't think that this is for 2 persons, but it sounds like fun anyway : http://www.terrypratchett.co.uk/?p=2237

The rules : http://www.guardsguards.com/about-guards-guards.aspx

If feeling geeky, go for this, seems fun and is currently on sale:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/e739/

The Catan Card game for 2 players is quite good.

Race for the Galaxy is awesome, it is basically as good as Puerto Rico in a card game format and sci fi setting. It has similarities to Puerto Rico's gameplay, but it is different as well.
If you know how to play Puerto RIco, or San Juan, yu can learn Race fo the Galaxy without to much effort. The hardest part is the symbols used on the cards are not easy to memorize and for some people recognise.

I like the D&D "Ravenloft" boardgame, played it quite a bit 2 player w/ my wife and it works pretty well. It's like a stripped down 4th edition, on a board and you lay down random dungeon tiles and draw random monsters as you go. If youre into D&D, i'd surely recommend it.

I think there needs to be a houserule regarding encounters, instead of drawing an encounter every time you should roll the D20 and over/under 10 is yes/no to an encounter card, or the number of encounters gets totally out of hand. Other than that it's a solid game.

I would go for Chess. No prior set-up, its all in your game. A very complex game stripped of any unnecessary fudge, just pure strategy. Im sure your already familiar with chess, but yeah me and my woman play it all the time, quite evenly too, shes got her own thing going You can usually buy a nice enough glass set at your local Family Dollar or somewhere similar for 5 or 10 bucks. Happy gaming to you.