The Royal Game of Ur
A 4,500-year-old game found in the Royal Cemetery of Ur. Play it here with its real rules, against the computer or a friend.
How to play
- Each player has 7 pieces. Get all of them to the end of the track before your opponent.
- The dice are four tetrahedra, each with one marked tip. The number of marked tips facing up is how far you move (0 to 4).
- Each piece runs 4 squares along your own row, 8 along the shared middle row, then 2 back in your row and off the board.
- Land on an opponent’s piece in the middle row and it goes back to the start.
- A rosette gives you another roll, and the rosette in the middle of the board is safe: no one can capture you there.
- To bear a piece off you need the exact number.
The original board is in the British Museum. Its rules were decoded from a Babylonian tablet written by a scribe named Itti-Marduk-balatu around 177 BC.