A Living Encyclopedia
From the senet boards of Ancient Egypt to the go stones of Tang Dynasty China — explore the games that shaped cultures, tested minds, and connected people across millennia.
Explore the CollectionOne of the world's oldest strategy games, played with seeds or stones across pit-and-row boards carved from wood, stone, or even dug into the earth.
Found in predynastic Egyptian tombs, Senet was more than a game — it was a ritual journey through the underworld, played alongside the dead.
Simple rules, infinite depth. Go has more possible positions than atoms in the observable universe, yet is learned in minutes and studied for lifetimes.
Born as chaturanga in the Gupta Empire, transformed by the Persians, and reinvented in medieval Europe — chess is the world's most travelled game.
The national game of India, played on a cross-shaped cloth board. Emperor Akbar famously played it using slaves as living pieces in his palace courtyard.
Boards have been found carved into Egyptian temple roofing slabs and Roman military barracks. This game followed armies and trade routes across the ancient world.
This site is a project between us — a shared curiosity about how people across history have played, competed, and connected. We research each game together, write up the history, and (when we can!) build a playable version so you can experience it yourself.
We update this whenever we discover something new. If you know a game we should cover, we'd love to hear about it.
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