The Royal Game of Ur dates back to 3,000 BC. The rules for this game were lost. Archeologists uncovered game boards, but the rules for the game remained a mystery. In the early 1980s, Irving Finkel, a curator at the British Museum, translated a cuneiform tablet that revealed the rules for the game.

How to play the game

When it's your turn, tap on the piece you want to move or on the square you wish to move to. Pieces are moved one square for each die that lands with a white spot showing. The goal is to be the first player to move all of their pieces through the course. If your token lands on a square marked with a rosette, you get another turn. If your piece lands on your opponent's piece, you send it back to the start. A piece on the center rosette is safe from capture.

Hints

When starting a piece, you can tap on the your pieces that have not started yet at the bottom left corner of the screen.
Instead of tapping, you can also move your piece by dragging it to where you want it to go.
If you are capturing a piece, you can flick the captured piece off the board. This move is called the “Finkel flick”.
If you wish to start a new game, you can resign the current game by dragging your piece back to a start position at the left corner of the screen.

Click here to go to the Apple App store.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the privacy policy?

The Royal Game of Ur does not collect any information about the games you are playing (other than how many games you win or lose). Your game scores are not shared with any third parties. There are no third party SDKs monitoring your playing. If you choose to share diagnostics about the Game of Ur, thank you very much. There are no ads. There are no in-app purchases.

If you have any other questions, send them to me.