Liubo

Liubo is an ancient lost race game from China. Said to be about two thousand years old, the game was mentioned in a fifth century Chinese translation of the Indian Brahmasutra as being obsolete by that time. Though the original rules are lost, plenty of relics survive to give us clues about game play.

The game was played by two on a square board. The board possessed peculiar markings resembling a symmetrical pattern of T and L shapes, the ends and corners of which may have been the playing spaces. The pieces were oblong, six per player, and large casting sticks appear to have controlled the moves.