Kevin HY Hau - Hello World 👋

📖 Rules of the Royal Game of Ur

A race for two. Each player has 7 pieces (or 5). Be first to take all of yours round the board and off at the end. You are the blue pieces on the bottom row; your path goes right to left along your own 4 squares, then up and across the middle lane (shared with your rival) from left to right, then into your last two squares and off.

The throw

• You throw four two-sided dice. The number of marked tips that come up is your move: 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4. The middle numbers are the most likely (2 comes up 6 times in 16, 0 and 4 only once in 16).
• Move one piece exactly that many squares, or bring a new piece on (a throw of 3 puts it on your third square). A throw of 0 means you lose your turn. If you can’t move, you lose your turn.

Squares and hitting

• You may not land on your own piece.
• The middle lane is shared. If you land on a rival there, that piece is captured and goes back to the start.
• The five rosettes (🏵) are special: land on one and throw again. The rosette in the middle of the shared lane is also safe: a piece on it can’t be captured, and you can’t land on it if a rival is there. A piece parked on it blocks it for the rival.

Going home

• To bear a piece off you need the exact number to step past the last square (a piece on your last square needs a 1, the one before needs a 2). The setting “Any throw” lets a higher throw bear off too, which makes the end quicker.
• The first player to bear off all pieces wins.

This version

• You are blue (bottom row); the computer or a friend is orange (top row). Tap a glowing piece to move it; tap the waiting pieces to bring one on. If only one move is possible it is played for you (a setting).
• These are the Finkel rules, the common modern reconstruction. Nobody knows exactly how it was played 4,500 years ago, so other versions differ in details.
• The computer looks ahead over the dice chances (Hard looks 3 throws ahead), but its judgement is simple, so it is not unbeatable.