Play Senet Online - An Ancient Egyptian Board Game vs AI
How to Play Senet
Each side has five pieces and races them along a thirty-square path. Get all five off the board first and you win. Along the way you have to deal with blocks, swaps, house 26, the water house, and exact bear-off. When you play against the AI, hints, undo, and replay are always there to help you learn the rhythm of a full game.
Where this version of Senet comes from
Senet is one of the best-known board games from ancient Egypt, and still one of the ancient race games people mention most often today. Archaeologists uncovered boards, pieces, and visual evidence, but not a complete rulebook. So the Senet most people encounter now is a modern reconstruction, pieced together from artifacts, images, and scattered written references.
This site uses a Kendall-style reconstruction: a 3×10 board of thirty squares, two players with five pieces each, and a single shared route to the exit. It is widely used because it stays as close as possible to the surviving evidence while still producing a complete, tense game that holds up over repeated play. That is what lets Senet feel like more than a historical object. It becomes a game you can actually learn and play.
Crowded from the opening
The pieces begin almost shoulder to shoulder, so the very first throw often leads to a swap. Do not focus only on pushing your own pieces forward. If two opposing pieces are linked together, that square is closed: you cannot land there, and you cannot move past it.
You must stop on 26
A piece has to stop on house 26, the House of Happiness, before it can move into the final stretch. House 27 is the water house: land there and that piece goes back to 15, the House of Rebirth. If one of your own pieces is already on 15, or your opponent is occupying that safe square, then the move cannot be played.
What it feels like to play the AI
No need to wait for anyone or line up a time. Start a game whenever you want, and let the AI help you get familiar with the key squares on the board.
If you get stuck, tap Hint to see what options this throw gives you. If you try a move and do not like the result, use undo and test the alternative.
After the game, replay the full record and look back at the turning points: the move that dropped a piece into the water house, or the swap you could have made a little earlier.
You can play as Black or White. The game record stays in your browser and is never uploaded anywhere.
3×1030 squares, folding path
5pieces per side
1–5from four throwing sticks
Bear offget all five home to win