This project is inspired by timburgan/timburgan. At the time of writing, Tim's profile README is a game of chess that anyone can play by making their move in an issue. The whole process is automated by GitHub Actions.

When I saw that for the first time, I knew that I had to have one. I know an opportunity for a format screw when I see one and this looked perfect.

I also knew that straight-up copying chess would be too derivative and not interesting enough to justify. I needed a different game. The only real requirement was that it couldn't have any secrets — like a hidden hand of cards — because the only way I have of displaying information is by giving the same information to all potential players.

Chess was a very good choice. I considered draughts/checkers, but I think that's a step down from chess. Othello/Reversi would probably have been pretty fun to implement, but I only thought of it just now as I'm writing this. I totally would've gone for Go, but I tried playing that a few years ago and did not come even close to understanding it.

I checked my cupboard full of board games and discovered that they were all vastly more complicated than I wanted. The simplest I found was Tak, a simple abstract game that I love but that I'm terrible at — but even that was far too complex, with a 3D element and all sorts of moves that the player can make at any given point.

But then! I remembered The Royal Game of Ur, a game that has been played for millenia — since 2600 BCE — but that nobody is entirely sure how to play, because all those generations of people did not, or could not, write down the rules. They all simply knew it, so there was no need, and as a result that information is lost to us.

While many boards have been found, the only documentation is a Babylonian clay table that describes a modification to the game based on previous knowledge. The version of the game that is played today is a reconstruction of those rules by Irving Finkel, and it may be exactly how it was played or it may be slightly different. We cannot, and will never, know.

This story has fascinated me ever since a good friend introduced the game to me during my first year at university. How can a knowledge that is so common be lost to the ages?

I hope you enjoy playing the Royal Game, and that the thought of countless generations of your ancestors playing a game that you'll never truly know sends a shiver down your spine.

A big thank you to Felix Schorer for creating the ur-game npm package (MIT) that this project depends upon.