Play the Royal Game of Ur!
This game has been played for over 4500 years. Play a game and find out why!
What is the Royal Game of Ur?
The Royal Game of Ur is one of the oldest board games in the world, with evidence of it being played by people who lived over 4500 years ago. That includes many play-urs enjoying the game today!
The Royal Game of Ur is a two-player race game where you and an opponent go to war! The first player to score all their pieces wins.
Games start friendly, but quickly grow fierce as pieces reach the middle of the board and the battle begins. You need a lot of skill, and a bit of luck, to get your pieces to the end of the board without them being captured. But it's worth it to secure victory! This battle has been going on for 4500 years in pubs and taverns around the world.
We continue this ancient tradition by continuing to play the Royal Game of Ur today! Learn the rules of the Royal Game of Ur here.
The modern era of Ur began in the 1920's when Sir Leonard Woolley excavated four unique game boards from a royal tomb in Ur, ancient Mesopotamia. This gave the game it's modern name, the Royal Game of Ur, and began it's modern revival. It was called the "Royal Game" because of its ties to this royal tomb. The game has also been called the Game of Twenty Squares, or Pack of Dogs.
The game is played with its unique board, 5 or 7 pieces per player, and three or four two-sided dice. The exact rules that were played thousands of years ago is unknown, and likely changed over time and in different regions. However, academics have used ancient artifacts and the writing on old cuneiform tablets to discover several likely options.
The rules that have become the most popular in this millenia are the ones presented in the 2017 YouTube video Tom Scott vs. Irving Finkel. We call these rules the Finkel ruleset. These are the most commonly played rules on this site, although other rules are also available to try!
Why was RoyalUr.net started?
We now boast over 1000 games played every day on RoyalUr, and we hope that number will continue to grow into the future with new members like you! We love this ancient game, and we believe that it should be played all around the world as a casual, fun, and history-rich game.
If you'd like to join us, we also have a rich Discord community of over 900 members where we discuss everything RGU. This community welcomes both serious and casual players, as well as academics, history aficionados, and board game lovers! You can join us by clicking this link.
Join the Commun-ur-ty!
Whether you're a casual play-ur, a history buff, a researcher, or a pro player, everyone is welcome in our Royal Game of Ur Discord group! Many players find opponents in our group, discuss strategy, and we even conduct research about the game. We also have channels for discussing tournaments, DIY game boards, history, different rulesets, similar games, and even the development of this website! However, in my view, the best feature of our group is the community. I have made many friends from our group, and if you're interested in the Royal Game of Ur, I have no doubt you'll fit right in!
Buy Physical Boards
I have to admit, there is something special about playing on a real, physical board. I do my best to emulate it online here, but there's only so much I can do! So, if you want to get the real deal and buy a Royal Game of Ur board, I recommend that you check out Masters Traditional Games. James Masters' work as a games historian is what led to the Masters ruleset here on RoyalUr.net! Click here to visit Masters Traditional Games.
