Learn twenty squares
Pick a lesson. Each step sets up the board, and you make the move yourself.
Step 1 of 2
Five pieces a side
The Babylonian tablet gives each side five pieces, named after birds. Here you play with five instead of seven; everything else is as in Sawah rules.
Four ways to play: what's the difference?
Before you play, you choose the rules. Sawah rules are the base and the easiest start; the other three each change one thing, and each change has a source. Here is every difference, where it comes from and what it does to the game — and each set has a short lesson that teaches the difference hands-on.
- For beginners
Sawah rules
The Egyptian board, 7 pieces; a mark is safe and gives another throw.
The base
These are the rules every other set is measured against.
Where does it come from?
Today's common rules for the Royal Game of Ur, played on the Egyptian board of Tutankhamun's box 593, with the marks where that box has them.
What does it change in play?
A race with real choices: when to take a piece, when to sit on a mark, and when to hurry home.
Source: Carter card 593-3 (the board); royalur.net (the rules) - For experts
The Ur board
A 3×8 board with rosettes on squares 4, 8 and 14.
What changes from Sawah rules?
- The Ur board instead of the Egyptian one: two blocks joined by a two-square bridge
- A path of 14 squares: four of your own, eight shared, and two of your own again at the end
- Rosettes on squares 4, 8, and 14
Where does it come from?
The shape of the boards Leonard Woolley found in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, such as British Museum BM 120834, with the route played today.
What does it change in play?
A shorter path and a shorter shared lane: fewer squares to meet on, and the middle rosette becomes the square to hold.
Source: British Museum BM 120834; royalur.net (the route) - For experts
The Babylonian tablet
5 pieces a side, the number the cuneiform tablet names.
What changes from Sawah rules?
- 5 pieces a side instead of seven
Where does it come from?
Tablet BM 33333B, written in 177/176 BCE, gives each side five pieces named after birds. It says nothing of the route, capture or safety, so everything else stays as in Sawah rules.
What does it change in play?
Fewer pieces make a quicker game, with fewer pieces to guard and fewer to bring home.
Source: Finkel 2007: 16–32 - For experts
Marks give a throw only
A mark gives another throw but does not protect the piece on it.
What changes from Sawah rules?
- A marked square still gives another throw, but it is not safe: a piece on it can be taken
Where does it come from?
Irving Finkel suggests that the simple "rosette = a second throw" was the earlier everyday play. Here a mark keeps its extra throw and loses its safety.
What does it change in play?
No square in the shared lane is safe, so the game is sharper: a piece sitting on a mark can be taken like any other.
Source: Finkel 2007: 26
Show the full comparison table
| Rule | Sawah rules | The Ur board | The Babylonian tablet | Marks give a throw only |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Board | Egyptian | Ur | Egyptian | Egyptian |
| Squares on the path | 16 | 14 | 16 | 16 |
| Pieces a side | 7 | 7 | 5 | 7 |
| Marked squares | 4, 8, 12, and 16 | 4, 8, and 14 | 4, 8, 12, and 16 | 4, 8, 12, and 16 |
| What a mark does | Safe, and another throw | Safe, and another throw | Safe, and another throw | Another throw only |
All four are modern reconstructions, because no Egyptian rules survive and the Babylonian tablet does not give a whole game.
No Egyptian rules have survived; these are "Sawah rules", a modern reconstruction with its sources on the rules page.