What is Yut Nori?
Yut Nori (윷놀이) is a traditional Korean board game. You throw four wooden sticks called yut, move your pieces around a board of 29 stations, and race to bring every piece home first. Korean families and villages have played it for centuries, above all at the Lunar New Year.
The game in one minute
The name joins yut, the four sticks, with nori, which means play or game. In classical Chinese it is written sahui (柶戱). Each stick is flat on one side and rounded on the other, and the number of flat sides that land facing up decides your move: one is Do, two is Gae, three is Geol, four is Yut and none at all is Mo.
You then move one of your pieces (mal, 말) that many steps around the board (malpan, 말판). Stop on an opponent’s piece and you send it back to the start; stop on your own piece and the two travel together as a stack. Throwing Yut or Mo, or capturing a piece, earns you another throw.
The table below lists all six results with their moves and odds. For every detail, read the full Yut Nori rules; to play a first game step by step, see How to play Yut Nori.
Sticks, board and pieces
A set is just four sticks, a board and a few tokens for each side. The board is drawn as a square or a circle crossed by two diagonals, which gives 29 stations: 20 around the edge and 9 on the diagonals, including the center. The corners are shortcuts: a piece that stops exactly on one can cut across the middle.
Sets differ from region to region. Korean encyclopedias describe long sticks (가락윷) carved from a hard wood such as birch, and tiny “chestnut” sticks (밤윷) that are shaken in a small dish covered with the palm before they are thrown. There is even a way to play without a board, called geongung-yut (건궁윷), in which the players keep track of every piece in their heads.
Where Yut Nori comes from
Nobody knows exactly when Yut Nori began. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture estimates that yut dates from before the Three Kingdoms period, and Korea’s Ministry of Culture notes that it already seems to have been played in the kingdom of Baekje and that by the Goryeo period people were writing poems about it.
One long-standing theory links the game to the ancient kingdom of Buyeo, whose officials took their titles from domestic animals; Do, Gae, Geol, Yut and Mo are traditionally linked to the pig, dog, sheep, cow and horse. Yut appears in later records too, including the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, and farmers once threw yut at the start of the year to foretell the coming harvest.
In 2022 Korea’s Cultural Heritage Administration (now the Korea Heritage Service) designated Yut Nori a National Intangible Cultural Heritage, noting that families and village communities had handed it down without interruption.
When families play it
Yut Nori is above all a New Year game. Traditionally it was played from the first day of the lunar year through Jeongwol Daeboreum, the first full moon, and it is still the classic game of Seollal, the Lunar New Year holiday. Families bring the sticks out at other gatherings too, such as Chuseok, the autumn harvest holiday.
Part of its appeal is that it suits every age. Teams can mix grandparents and grandchildren, a turn takes seconds, and the throws are loud and dramatic: a whole room shouting “Mo!” is part of the fun. Read Yut Nori at Seollal for more about the holiday tradition.
Where to play Yut Nori today
You can still play the way families always have, with wooden sticks thrown onto a blanket on the floor. If there are no sticks to hand, or your family is spread across cities and countries, Yunnori brings the game to iPhone and Android:
- Play against the computer while you learn the rules.
- Pass one phone around so two to four players can take turns at the same table.
- Create an online room and share its four-character code; two to four players join from their own phones.
The same odds as real sticks
In Yunnori each of the four sticks lands flat side up half the time, which gives exactly the odds in the table below. To see how the throws are made, read Fair yut stick throws.
The six throws: 도·개·걸·윷·모·빽도
| Throw | Flat sides up | Move | Extra throw | Chance | Traditional animal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 도 (Do) | 1 | 1 forward | — | 3/16 (18.75%) | Pig |
| 개 (Gae) | 2 | 2 forward | — | 6/16 (37.5%) | Dog |
| 걸 (Geol) | 3 | 3 forward | — | 4/16 (25%) | Sheep |
| 윷 (Yut) | 4 | 4 forward | Yes | 1/16 (6.25%) | Cow |
| 모 (Mo) | 0 | 5 forward | Yes | 1/16 (6.25%) | Horse |
| 빽도 (Back-Do) | 1 (the marked stick only) | 1 back | — | 1/16 (6.25%) | — |
Odds assume four sticks that each land flat side up half the time, with Back-Do on (the standard setting). With Back-Do off, the marked-stick result counts as Do, so Do becomes 4/16.
Frequently asked questions
What does “Yut Nori” mean?
Yut is the name of the four throwing sticks and nori means play or game, so Yut Nori is simply “the yut game”. In classical Chinese it is written sahui (柶戱).
How old is Yut Nori?
Its exact origin is unknown. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture estimates that yut dates from before the Three Kingdoms period, and the game has been played for centuries since.
When do Koreans play Yut Nori?
Mostly at the Lunar New Year: traditionally from New Year’s Day to the first full moon, and today above all at Seollal. Families also play it at other holidays such as Chuseok.
Is Yut Nori an official cultural heritage?
Yes. Korea’s Cultural Heritage Administration designated Yut Nori a National Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2022.
Can I play Yut Nori online?
Yes. In Yunnori you can play the computer, pass one phone around, or invite two to four players to an online room with a four-character code.
Sources
- Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (한국민족문화대백과사전), “윷놀이” (in Korean)
- Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, “윷놀이” (in Korean)
- Korea.net, “Traditional board game named intangible cultural heritage” (26 September 2022)
- Financial News, report on the National Intangible Cultural Heritage designation (11 November 2022, in Korean)