The Royal Game of Ur is a two-player strategy racing board game that was first played in ancient Mesopotamia during the early third millennium BCE. It was one of the most popular games in the ancient world until it was eventually replaced by Backgammon.
Concepts & Symbolism
The Crucial Crossroads
The board’s unique shape—two rectangular blocks joined by a narrow bridge—creates a physical “bottleneck.”
- This represents Justice or Temperance—the need for careful balance and timing when moving through high-friction areas.
- The “bridge” is a point of inevitable conflict, mirroring the meeting of two opposing wills.
The Rosetta Stone of Gaming
The game’s rules were famously reconstructed by Irving Finkel of the British Museum using a cuneiform tablet. It represents the link between The Magician (Tech/Discovery) and The Hierophant (Tradition).
Basic Rules
- Objective: Move all seven pieces along the path and off the board.
- Dice: Four tetrahedral (binary) dice are cast. Resulting moves are 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4.
- Capture: Landing on an opponent’s piece in the “combat zone” (the middle row) knocks it off the board.
- Rosettes: Squares marked with flowers are “safe” and grant an extra turn.
Skill Progression
- The Racer: Focuses on moving pieces as fast as possible.
- The Guard: Learns to keep pieces on the Rosettes to block the opponent and stay safe.
- The Tactician: Manages the probability of the 4d2 dice. Understanding that a “2” is the most likely result, they position pieces to exploit the statistical commonality of landing on rosettes or capturing opponents.
TIP
The Royal Game of Ur is a perfect introduction to “Probability Management”—the art of making the best decision based on the most likely outcome of a random event.