What is Pachisi?

Pachisi has been played in India for many centuries. Traditional sets used an embroidered cross-shaped cloth as the board and cowrie shells as dice - the number of shells landing mouth-up gave the count. The name comes from the Hindi word for twenty-five, the best throw in the shell version. In the 1500s, Emperor Akbar famously played life-size games on giant courtyard boards, using members of his court as living pieces. Its family tree runs all the way to modern Ludo - see where Ludo comes from.

Here, Pachisi is played the traditional way - there is no die at all. Each turn you throw six cowrie shells, and the number landing mouth up gives your count: two to six mouths move that many squares, exactly one mouth up moves 10, and none at all moves 25.

• Graces. Throws of 6, 10 and 25 are graces: a grace lets a new piece enter the board and earns you another throw. Your first piece enters on any throw, but every later piece needs a grace.
• 12 safe castles instead of Ludo's 8 safe squares - the 4 start squares, the 4 star squares, and 4 extra castle squares. Shelter is never far away.
• Captures earn another throw. Send an enemy piece home and you throw again immediately, so aggressive play is rewarded.
• No exact-count finish. A throw larger than the distance remaining still carries a piece home.

Pachisi spread far beyond India and was adapted twice in the West: in America it became Parcheesi, trademarked in 1874, and in England it was simplified into Ludo in the 1890s. Both kept the cross-shaped race but swapped the cowrie shells for dice and trimmed the rules.

1. Chain your bonuses: a capture or a grace gives another throw, and that throw can set up another capture.
2. Use the 4 extra castles as stepping stones - plan moves castle to castle.
3. With so much shelter, patience beats panic; wait on a castle rather than running into danger.