Boardgames

Star Realms for something light. Radlands for something a bit meatier.

Hive is pretty fun!

Santorini, Wizards of the Grimoire, Abalone, Rummikube, Phase 10. I'll ask the wife for more later.

Been playing a lot of cribbage lately. Not a whole lot of brain power involved, just some counting.

I think Splendor Duel and and Seven Wonders Duel fit that description for me. Both really well thought out and specifically two players designed card based engine building games.

Morels, Jaipur, and Patchwork all fit that bill. If you want a little more meat in the game 13 Days and Eminent Domain Microcosm are a bit more thinky while still being small and lighter.

Ingenious, by Reiner Knizia. Scales well up to four players and is very well balanced.

The key mechanic is that there are six colors and scores and your lowest is the one that counts most.

So it's a race to develop your colors while preventing your opponents from doing the same.

My wife and I like Dairyman. It is a light push-your-luck dice game with a drop of engine building.

60 Second City is fun and simple, but frantic in small bursts. A game only takes about fifteen minutes.

Encounters: Battletech is great fun, and I think there are a few different themed versions. It's a push-your-luck dice game. Presumably there's an unthemed version.

Kings Kilt is fantastic

Build a pyramid of scottish clan names, murder your way to the top by eliminating a card in the pyramid and move names up from the bottom to backfill positions and place a new card on the bottom row.

Really good fun

I'm not sure it fits perfectly, but clank is one I've really enjoyed with 3 players. It shines with 3, but 2 can play as well. It's a dungeon race at its core, so there's slightly less going on with fewer players.

Another that might fit even better is wingspan/wyrmspan. They also shine with 3, but are more about your own buildup, pretty chill, and even work down to solo play.

Edit: if you like card games, especially euchre, California Jack is one I found to be pretty fun and unexpectedly interesting with two people. The scoring is a nice twist. It's a trick-taking game just like euchre, but you also tally up your cards at the end. It lends pretty well to some light strategic play. I also have to mention Golf, just because I've had a good time with it. Card games can be classic and cozy.

Onitama is ready to pick up but requires deep strategy.

Monopoly Deal is one of our favourites, you can scale it up and down easily, it's funny, and doesn't take a ton of set up time or have a steep learning curve.

I’d echo the thought of those 2 player kosmo games being perfect or even ones that come in that box size. Mandala, Patchwork, Lost Cities, Battleline, Jaipur and Targi are some of our favorite 2 player only games. There are plenty of multiplayer games that play best at 2 or are least still great.

BoardGameGeek.com has lots of lists for 2 player games by weight I’d recommend checking out.