How to play
The Royal Game of Ur is a 4,500-year-old race game for two. Bring all seven of your pieces onto the board, around the shared middle row, and off the far side. First player to bear off all seven wins.
The board
Each player has a 14-square path made of three segments: a private home column (squares 1–4), the shared middle row (5–12), and a private exit column (13–14). Three squares marked with ✸ are rosettes — safe squares that grant an extra turn. Two are private (squares 4 and 14, your own to use) and one is shared (square 8, in the middle of the board).
Playing your turn
Each turn has two phases: roll, then move. The status panel under the dice tells you which phase you're in.
Roll the dice
When it's your turn, click the Roll button under the dice. GamePotion rolls four binary tetrahedra and shows their sum (0–4).
The distribution is binomial, not uniform:
| Roll | Chance |
|---|---|
| 0 | 1/16 |
| 1 | 4/16 |
| 2 | 6/16 (most common) |
| 3 | 4/16 |
| 4 | 1/16 |
A roll of 0 means you can't move — your turn passes automatically.
Read the board
Once you've rolled, the pieces you can legally move glow yellow and pulse. Pieces that can't move on this roll stay dim.
A piece is legal if it can advance exactly the rolled distance to an empty square (or to an opponent's piece in the shared row — see capture below), without landing on one of your own pieces.
Move a piece (and how to bring your first one on)
Important — your first move: At the start of the game all seven of your pieces are stacked off-board in the Home pile next to the dice (rose for seat 1, sky for seat 2). You won't see any of your pieces on the board yet.
After you roll, the next piece in your Home pile glows yellow and pulses just like an on-board piece would. Click that glowing pile piece to bring it onto your home column at the rolled distance (roll 1 → square 1, roll 4 → square 4, etc.). That's how every piece gets onto the board.
Once you have pieces on the board, the same rule applies: click any glowing piece — on the board or in your Home pile — to move it the rolled distance along your path.
If nothing can move legally on this roll, the turn passes automatically.
Rosettes: safe + extra turn
Landing on a rosette (marked ✸) does two things:
- You roll again — same player, immediate extra turn.
- The piece is safe. A piece on any rosette cannot be captured.
Rosettes live at squares 4 (in your home column), 8 (the shared middle square), and 14 (in your exit column).
Capture an opponent
In the shared middle row (squares 5–12), landing on a square that holds a single opponent piece sends that piece all the way back to its home pile. The owner has to bring it on again from scratch.
Two exceptions:
- The shared rosette (square 8) cannot be captured on at all. If an opponent piece is parked there, you can't land on it.
- You can't capture on your private home or exit columns — only opponents pass through the shared row, so captures only happen there.
Bear off
Once a piece reaches your exit column (squares 13 and 14), it can leave the board entirely — this is called bearing off.
You need an exact roll to bear off: a piece on square 13 needs a 2, a piece on square 14 needs a 1. An over-roll doesn't work — you'll have to move a different piece (or pass if you can't).
When the turn passes
You don't move on every turn. The turn passes automatically when:
- You roll a 0.
- You have no legal moves — e.g., every piece is blocked by your own or by the shared rosette.
The dice panel's status line will say "Awaiting roll" or "Pick a piece" so you always know whose turn it is and what phase you're in.
Win the game
The first player to bear off all seven pieces wins. The board flips to a post-game banner showing the winner, pieces borne off, captures made, and rosettes landed.
Other things you can do at a table
- Resign — ends the game immediately; your opponent wins.
- Leave table — you exit and can't rejoin. If both players leave, the table closes.
- 30-second idle timeout — if you don't take an action for 30 seconds when it's your turn, you forfeit the game and your opponent wins.
- Mobile — the board is landscape-only. You'll see a "Rotate your device" hint in portrait orientation.
Glossary
Game terms
- Bear off
- Removing one of your pieces from the board by rolling exactly the distance needed past square 14. You win by bearing off all seven.
- Blockade
- An opponent's piece on a square you'd need to land on. In the shared row you can capture it; on the shared rosette (8) it blocks you entirely.
- Capture
- Landing on an opponent's single piece in the shared row (squares 5–12, non-rosette). The captured piece goes back to its home pile.
- Exit column
- Squares 13 and 14 of your path. Square 14 is a private rosette. From here, the next exact roll bears the piece off the board.
- Finkel rules
- The modern ruleset used by GamePotion (no stacking, three rosettes, capture only in the shared row). Named after Irving Finkel's reconstruction.
- Home column
- Squares 1 to 4 of your path, on your side of the board. Square 4 is a private rosette. Opponents never enter your home column.
- Home pile
- The off-board stack of pieces waiting to be brought onto the board. You start with all seven here.
- Pass
- An automatic turn skip that happens on a roll of 0 or when no legal moves exist for the rolled value.
- Rosette
- A square marked ✸. Landing on one keeps the piece safe and grants an immediate extra turn.
- Shared row
- The middle row of the board, squares 5 to 12, walked by both players. The only place captures happen.
Platform terms
- ELO
- A skill rating that goes up when you win and down when you lose. New accounts start at 1200.
- Invite
- A single-use link generated by a private-table owner. The first person to redeem the link takes the open seat.
- Match
- One completed game between two seats. Tracked in your history and counted toward ELO and the leaderboard.
- Matchmaking
- Click "Find Match" to be paired with another waiting player near your ELO. A private table is created for the pair automatically.
- Ruleset
- Which Ur variant the table uses. GamePotion currently plays Finkel; Masters and Murray rulesets are reserved for future support.
- Seat
- One of two playing slots at a table. Seat numbers are 1 (rose pieces, top row) and 2 (sky pieces, bottom row).
- Spectator
- A non-playing visitor at a public table. Spectators see the board but can't roll, move, or resign.
- Table
- A two-seat playing area. Private tables require an invite link; public tables let anyone with the URL spectate.
- Visibility
- A private table is invite-only. The owner can switch a table to public so anyone with the link can spectate.