The Royal Game of Ur

How the Royal Game of Ur is played

The board was found in the royal graves of Ur, some four and a half thousand years old. No written rules survive; this is one way the game is played today, worked out from the shape of the board.

The rules

• The pieces and the route. Each player has seven pieces, white or black, and must bring them all round a route of twenty squares and off the board. Each colour has its own route: up its own outer column, across the bridge, round the small block, and then down the middle row.
• The route square by square. Squares 1–4 are your own outer column, 5 is the rosette in the middle of the large block, 6–7 the bridge, 8 the middle of the small block, 9–13 round the small block, 14 back in its middle, and 15–20 down the middle row. Your first four squares are yours alone; the bridge, the small block and the middle row are shared with your opponent.
• The dice. Three pyramid dice, each with two of its four tips marked. Three marked tips up give 5, none marked give 4, two marked give 1, and one marked gives 0.
• Who begins. Both players throw, and the higher throw goes first.
• Entering. A piece comes onto the board only with a 1 or a 5, onto the first or the fifth square of its route.
• Moving. Throw and move one piece that many squares along its route. Any number of pieces may share a square.
• Rosettes. Squares 1, 5, 9 and 13 on the route are rosettes. When one of your pieces lands on a rosette, another of your pieces comes onto square 1.
• Turning over. After fourteen squares the piece is turned over, to show that it is now on its way down the middle row.
• Attacking. Land on a square where your opponent's pieces stand and they are removed and must start again. Pieces on the way up attack only pieces on the way up, and pieces on the way down only pieces on the way down; going opposite ways, they simply pass. The rosettes and the last square are safe: there both colours may stand together.
• Going off. A piece must land exactly on the last square. From there it leaves the board with a throw of 4, and if several stand there, they all go off on the same throw.
• Winning. The first to bring all seven pieces off wins.

In this version

• A throw of 0 moves nothing, and the turn passes. No throw gives an extra turn.
• Equal opening throws are thrown again. The colours are fixed — white on the left, black on the right — and whoever throws higher moves first.
• The rosette's extra piece is brought onto square 1 automatically whenever you still have a piece off the board.
• The machine weighs each move by progress, capture, how exposed the piece is to a throw of 1, 4 or 5, and the way off.

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