The Royal Game of Ur is a two-player strategy race board game of the tables family that was first played in ancient Mesopotamia during the early third millennium BC. The game was popular across the Middle East among people of all social strata and boards for playing it have been found at locations as far away from Mesopotamia as Crete and Sri Lanka. The entry to the board is made into the outer row on the fourth square from the left going left. One player enters on the top row, the other on the lower. When the counter reaches the corner (with the rosette), it moves to the middle row and travels along in the reverse direction.

General rules and Objective

Objective: get all 7 pieces around the board to the finish point first.

  • Throw the dice to decide who plays first - highest score goes first, if it's a draw, throw again.

  • Take turns to throw dice and move one of the pieces as follows:

0 - move 0 squares​​ - i.e. miss a go.

1 - move 1 square

2 - move 2 squares

3 - move 3 squares

4 - move 4 square

  1. Only one piece may be moved per throw of the dice and pieces must always move forward around the track.

  2. If a counter lands upon a square occupied by an opposing counter, the counter landed upon is sent off the board and must start again from the beginning.

  3. If a counter lands on a rosette, throw the dice again (and again if another rosette is landed upon). The same piece does not need to move on the additional throw unless desired.

  4. A piece can be moved onto the board at any stage of the game as long as the square it is moved to upon the first turn is vacant.

  5. A player must always move a counter if it is possible to do so but if it is not possible, the turn is lost.

  6. Exact throws are needed to bear pieces off the board.

the flow….