What are the Oldest Board Games in the World?

Thousands of years before screens and rulebooks, humans were already doing something instantly recognizable: gathering around boards, rolling dice, moving pieces, and seeing what fate would bring.

What’s incredible isn’t just how old these games are but how playable they still feel. Many of today’s board games are direct descendants of designs created thousands of years ago.

Below are the oldest known board games, how they were played, and the modern board games that they have evolved into.

1. The Royal Game of Ur (c. 2600 BCE)

The Royal Game of Ur is one of the oldest known board games in the world, dating back to around 2600 BCE in ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq).

It’s a dice-based race game where two players compete to move all of their pieces along a fixed track and off the board before their opponent. This ancient game was the blueprint for many modern dice-driven, race games that we know of today.

How to play:

• Each player controls a set of pieces
• Players roll dice (originally tetrahedral/pyramid shaped dice)
  
• Each roll determined how far a piece could move
• Pieces race along a fixed, shared track/path on the board that had safe spaces, bonus turns, attack spaces, etc.
  
• Landing on certain squares grants bonuses or protection
  
• Opponents can knock each other back
  
• First player to move all pieces off the board wins
  

Modern board game equivalents:

Games like Backgammon, Parcheesi, and Ludo still follow this exact formula, just with updated boards and cleaner rules.

2. Senet (c. 3000 BCE)

Senet was played as a two player board game in ancient Egypt for over 2,000 years and eventually became a spiritual ritual tied to the afterlife. The goal was to race five pawns along a 30-square, S-shaped path to get them off the board before your opponent. Hence, the symbolization to your soul's journey to the afterlife and thus, another name for Senet was often called "passing".

How to play:

• Two players raced their pieces across a 30-square board
• Movement was determined by casting sticks or knucklebones (early dice)
• Players navigated special squares that could:
  • Protect pieces
  • Send pieces backward
  • Trap or block movement
• The goal was to successfully move all pieces off the board

Modern board game equivalents:

This design lives on in The Game of Life and Snakes and Ladders, where chance, setbacks, and progress are central—and skill takes a back seat.

3. Mancala (c. 2000 BCE or earlier)

Mancala is one of the oldest continuously played board games in the world, with origins likely dating back over 4,000 years—and possibly even earlier. The name “Mancala” comes from the Arabic word naqala, meaning “to move”.

Some of the earliest Mancala boards were carved directly into stone, temple steps, or the ground and played using seeds, shells, or stones.

Unlike many ancient games tied to a single civilization, Mancala spread organically across Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia, evolving into hundreds of regional variations that is still commonly played worldwide today. 

It's a simple game that requires no dice and no luck—only counting, planning, and foresight.

How to play:

• Players take turns picking up stones from a pit
  
• Stones are distributed one by one into subsequent pits
  
• Captures occur based on where the final stone lands
  
• Goal is to collect more stones than your opponent

Modern board game equivalents:

Modern Mancala sets are still sold today, and its influence can be seen in abstract strategy and engine-building games that reward efficient planning.

4. Go (c. 2000–2500 BCE)

Go is one of the oldest board games still played competitively today, with origins dating back roughly 2,500–4,000 years in ancient China. Known historically as Weiqi, Go has remained almost entirely unchanged—a rare example of a game that was essentially perfected at birth.

It was likely developed during early Chinese dynasties and played by scholars, generals, and emperors. It was considered one of the Four Arts of the Chinese Scholar, alongside calligraphy, painting, and music and used as a tool to teach patience, balance, and long-term thinking.

Unlike games tied to luck or fate, Go was seen as a reflection of cosmic balance and strategy, mirroring how territory, influence, and conflict unfold in the real world.

Go’s rules can be learned in minutes, but mastery takes a lifetime. While its mechanics are simple, the strategic possibilities are infinite and complexity arises from basic actions where each move affects the entire board. There are no dice, no randomness – just pure decision-making.

How to play:

• Two players alternate placing black and white stones on intersections of a grid
  
• Stones attempt to surround territory
  
• Stones are captured and removed when completely surrounded
• The game ends when both players pass, agreeing no more progress can be made
• The player controlling the most territory wins

Modern board game equivalents:

Go still endures today with high level players playing competitively around the world and many modern Go boards to choose from to add to your board game collection. It also inspired modern abstract strategy games focused on spatial control and long-term planning. Go was also the game chosen to be played between artificial intelligence and humans where AI was able to beat the best human Go players in the world.

5. Chess (c. 6th century CE)

Chess is one of the world’s most influential strategy games, with roots stretching back over 1,500 years. While the modern game of chess emerged in Europe, its origins trace back to ancient India in the 6th century CE, evolving from the Indian game Chaturanga, where it began as a battlefield simulation. Chaturanga represented the four divisions of the Indian army: infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariots.

The game spread through Persia (where it became Shatranj) and later into Europe where it gradually evolved into modern chess by the late Middle Ages.

Unlike many ancient games driven by luck, chess emphasized calculation, foresight, and hierarchy—mirroring real-world warfare and leadership.

Chess struck a rare balance by having simple objectives, deep tactical and strategic layers, clear win conditions, and endless mastery.

It became a universal language of strategy, studied by generals, scholars, and world champions alike.

How to play:

• Two players command opposing armies on a checkered board of 64 squares
• Each piece has unique movement rules
  
• Players take turns capturing pieces
  
• Goal is to checkmate the opponent’s king
  

Modern board game equivalents:

Chess didn’t fade but instead became standardized and one of the most popular games of all time today. It remains the benchmark for strategic thinking, influencing artificial intelligence, education, and competitive gaming worldwide.

While the game of chess has gone unchanged for centuries, nowadays there are tons of beautiful modern designs of the game board that are worthy of not only playing but displaying in your home.

See some of the most beautiful, modern chess designs here.

Why These Ancient Board Games Still Feel Familiar

Playing board games was a universally appreciated and beloved hobby that goes back to ancient civilizations. Over thousands of years, our ancestors who created these ancient games that were the first variations of many modern games we play today established game patterns and rules that we still love and incorporate into our games today:

• 🎲 Dice and chance
  
• 🧠 Strategy and foresight
  
• 🧭 Boards as journeys
  
• 🤝 Social competition

When you sit down to play a board game today, you’re not just playing, you’re continuing a human tradition older than writing itself. Every roll and move echoes hands that did the same thing thousands of years ago. Humans didn’t stop playing these games. We just kept improving the boards.

Want to experience playing one of these ancient board games? ♟️

Book a unique stay at the Tiny Dice House where we have a collection of ancient and modern board games to play!