How to play Ludo: rules, capturing and winning tips

What you need

A Ludo board, one die and four tokens in each of four colours. The board is a cross: each arm has three rows of squares, and the outer rows of the four arms join up to make one track round the board. In each corner is a yard where a colour's tokens wait. The middle row of each arm is that colour's home column, leading to home at the centre.

Ludo descends from the Indian game pachisi. It was patented in England under the name Ludo in 1896, with a single die and a smaller, squarer board.

Setting up

1. Each player takes a colour and puts its four tokens in the matching yard.
2. Find your start square. It is the coloured square on the track beside your yard.
3. Take turns clockwise, one roll of the die each.

A turn

1. Roll the die.
2. A six lets you bring a token out of your yard onto your start square.
3. Any number lets you move one of your tokens on the track forward by that many squares.
4. After a six, roll again.

• You need a six to get going. With all four tokens in the yard, any other roll does nothing and the turn passes.
• One token moves the whole roll. A roll is never split between tokens.
• If no token can move, the turn passes to the next player.
• Tokens may jump over others. Only the square a token lands on matters.

Capturing and sharing squares

If your token lands on a square held by another colour, that token is captured: it goes back to its owner's yard and has to wait for a six to come out again.

Two tokens of the same colour may stand on the same square. In the standard game that gives them no protection: a rival landing there sends both of them back.

The home column and getting home

A token travels 50 squares clockwise round the track from its start square. It then turns off the track into its own home column. Only tokens of that colour may enter, so a token in its home column can no longer be captured.

To finish, a token must reach home by an exact roll. If the number rolled is larger than the number of squares the token has left, that token cannot move.

The first player to bring all four tokens home wins.

Strategy for beginners

• Get tokens out. Early in the game, use a six to bring out a new token. With several tokens on the track you can always pick the best move for the roll.
• Mind the gap. A token one to six squares ahead of a rival can be captured with a single roll. Seven or more ahead is much safer.
• Watch the start squares. A rival with tokens in its yard may roll a six and bring one out onto its start square. Do not rest there.
• Capture when it hurts most. A token close to its home column has the most to lose. A token that has only now come out loses almost nothing.
• Run for the home column when a token is near it. Once inside, it is safe.
• Keep exact rolls in mind. Two tokens waiting in the home column for different numbers double your chance of finishing one on any roll.

• Moving one token all the way round while three sit in the yard.
• Stopping a few squares in front of a rival when another move was available.
• Passing up a capture to move a token that was in no danger.

Common variations

Ludo has many relatives round the world that grew from the same Indian game, including a well-known German game from the early twentieth century. They differ in details such as safe squares, blocks and how tokens come out.