The Royal Game of Ur
A 4500 year old Sumerian board game brought back to life
A 4500 year old Sumerian board game brought back to life
Choose your game mode
Rules are simple
Similarly to Ludo, the Royal Game of Ur is a race game. You try to move your seven pieces from one end of the board to the other. White starts in the middle of the bottom row, moves to the left, then right on the middle row until the end, then down and left again until you come off in the middle of the bottom row. Black starts in the middle of the top row, moves left, etc.
You roll the number of tiles you may move with 4 tetrahedral dice (pyramids with a triangluar base). Two of the four tips of each dice are painted white. If a white tip points up, you may move one tile. So you have the chance to roll any number from 0 to 4 (including 0).
If you land on the same tile as your enemy you capture their piece, removing it back to the starting area. There is one exception to this rule: the rosette tile in the middle of the middle row is safe ground - pieces can't be captured there.
If you land on a rosette tile you get to roll the dice again. If you keep landing on rosette tiles you get to roll again and again, giving you a serious advantage.
In 2017, Irving Finkel, who deciphered the rules for the Royal Game of Ur, and YouTuber Tom Scott played a match in celebration of the Tabletop Day. You can watch the recording on YouTube.
Watch the video