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Senet

Chapter 51 · The ancient Egyptian game of passing. Throw four sticks, race five pieces along an S-shaped track of thirty houses, swap places with your rival, and beware the House of Water

TURNYou
THROW-
HOME YOU–THEM0–0
MOVES0
Throw the sticks

You win

Play:
Protection and blockades:
Who starts:

📖 Rules of Senet

A race game for two, played in Egypt for about 3,000 years. Each player has 5 pieces and the aim is to be first to bring all five off the board. You are the light pieces (they start on the even houses of the top row). The track is an S: along the top row to the right (houses 1 to 10), back along the middle row to the left (11 to 20), then along the bottom row to the right (21 to 30). Both players use the same track, in the same direction.

The throw

  • You throw four sticks, each with a marked and a plain side. Count the marked sides showing: that is how many houses you move (1, 2, 3 or 4). None showing counts as 5.
  • A throw of 1, 4 or 5 gives you another throw. A 2 or 3 passes the turn.

Moving

  • Move one piece forward exactly the number thrown. You can’t land on your own piece.
  • Landing on an enemy piece swaps places: your piece takes the house and theirs goes to the house you left (so it goes back).
  • Protection: a piece next to another of its own side can’t be swapped. Blockade: three in a row can’t be passed by the other side. (You can switch these two rules off.)
  • If you can’t move any piece forward you must move one backward by the throw. If no move at all is possible you lose the turn.

The last houses

  • House 15, Rebirth (ankh): where a piece comes back to when it falls in the water.
  • House 26, Happiness (star): every piece must land on it exactly, none may jump past it. From here a 5 takes a piece straight off, a 1 drops it in the water.
  • House 27, Water (waves): a piece landing here goes back to house 15, or to the first free house behind it if 15 is taken.
  • Houses 28, 29 and 30 (three, two and one dots): the dots show the exact throw that takes a piece off from there. A bigger throw is not allowed.
  • Houses 26, 28, 29 and 30 are safe: a piece on them can’t be swapped, and you can’t land there while any piece is there.

This version

  • Tap a glowing piece to move it (a gold ring shows where it lands). If only one move is possible it is played for you (a setting).
  • Nobody knows how it was really played. This is Timothy Kendall’s reconstruction; other versions differ, for example in what the dots mean or whether a throw of 5 exists.
  • Senet is mostly luck. The computer weighs up the chances (Hard looks 3 throws ahead) but even good play only helps a little.