Chausar

How to play chausar

Chausar is a close relative of pachisi and is often played on the same cross-shaped board. Every piece starts in the centre, runs down the middle row of its own arm, goes round the board with the sun along the outer rows, and comes back up the middle row into the centre. The first to bring all four pieces home wins; in teams the partners win together.

The rules

• The dice are three long four-sided sticks. Opposite faces show 1 and 6, the other two 2 and 5. Everyone throws to see who begins; the highest total starts.
• Each die moves one piece by its number. Use the dice in any order; the same piece may take several dice one after another. A piece may leave the centre on any throw.
• When two dice show the same number, two or more pieces standing together on one square may move together, twice that number. This uses both dice.
• Land on an opponent's piece and it goes back to the centre. You get an extra throw once your dice are spent.
• Two or more pieces on one square make a blockade, but only once they have come round half the board. An opponent cannot pass a blockade with fewer pieces, and takes it only by landing on it with as many or more.
• Pieces that have not yet come halfway are no blockade: a single piece may pass them, or land on them and send them all back.
• A piece enters the centre only on an exact throw. There are no castle squares where a piece is safe.
• Four players play in teams: black and yellow against red and green, partners sitting opposite. Black must have all its pieces home before yellow may go up the middle row of its own arm, and red before green.
• When one partner has all four pieces home, that player keeps throwing on their turn, and the other partner may use the throw when it helps.

In this version

• Pieces waiting at the foot of their own middle row make no blockade; otherwise two waiting partners could lock the whole board.
• Pieces moving together on an equal pair each go the whole distance, and may pass a blockade no bigger than their group.
• Your partner's pieces count in a blockade, and you never take them. With two or three players everyone plays alone.

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