Senet is the oldest board game we can name — Egyptians were playing it before 3000 BCE, and boards turn up in tombs including Tutankhamun’s. The full ancient rules were lost, but game historians (notably Timothy Kendall and R.C. Bell) reconstructed a playable set from tomb paintings and surviving boards. It is a race: move all your pieces along a 30-square track and off the board before your opponent.
The board and setup
Senet is 30 squares — three rows of ten — travelled in a boustrophedon (“as the ox plows”) S-shape: left-to-right along the top row, right-to-left along the middle, left-to-right along the bottom. Each player starts with five pieces on the first ten squares, interleaved so the two colors alternate.
Throwing sticks instead of dice
You throw four two-sided casting sticks (one painted face, one plain). Count the painted faces up:
- 1, 2, 3, or 4 painted = move that many squares.
- All four plain = a throw of 6.
- A throw of 1, 4, or 6 earns another turn — chain them to move several pieces.
You must move if you legally can. If no piece can make the throw, you forfeit the turn.
Moving, blocking, and capturing
- You cannot land on your own piece.
- Landing on a single opponent piece swaps places with it — you take its square, it takes yours.
- Two of your opponent’s pieces sitting side by side are protected — you cannot swap onto either. Three or more in a row form a blockade that cannot be passed at all.
The special houses
The last five squares carry markings that decide games:
- House of Rebirth (square 15) — the square a drowned piece returns to.
- House of Beauty (26) — a piece must stop here before it can go on; it is the gateway to bearing off.
- House of Water (27) — the trap. A piece that lands here (or is forced back to it) is sent back to the House of Rebirth.
- Squares 28, 29, 30 — bear off with an exact throw: a 3 from square 28, a 2 from 29, a 1 from 30. Overshooting is not allowed.
How to win
- Guard the House of Water. Getting bounced back to square 15 is the single biggest swing — keep spare throws in hand so you are never forced onto square 27.
- Build pairs. Two adjacent pieces cannot be swapped; advancing in protected pairs denies your opponent captures.
- Bank your extra turns. Throws of 1, 4, and 6 repeat — sequence your moves so a bonus throw lands a piece safely or onto square 26.
- Don’t rush a lone runner. A single exposed piece is a swap target that can lose a dozen squares.