Yut Nori rules

Players, pieces and the board

Two to four players each start with four pieces (말, literally “horses”) waiting off the board. Any small object works as a piece on a paper board; in Yunnori each player has their own color.

The board (말판) has 29 stations. Twenty of them form the outer square, five to a side, and nine more lie on the two diagonals that cross in the middle, including the center itself. The four corners and the center are drawn larger because they matter most: three of the corners are where the shortcuts begin, the fourth (참먹이) is where pieces enter and leave the board, and the center is where the diagonals meet.

The corners have traditional names. The start corner, which is also where pieces leave the board, is 참먹이 (chammeogi). The first corner a piece reaches is 모 (mo), the second is 뒷모 (dwitmo) and the third is 찌모 (jjimo). The center is called 방 (bang). Pieces enter on the station next to 참먹이 and travel around the square toward 모.

The yut sticks

Yut is thrown with four sticks (윷가락). Each stick has a flat side and a rounded side, and every throw is read the same way: count how many flat sides land facing up. One is 도 (Do), two is 개 (Gae), three is 걸 (Geol), four is 윷 (Yut), and if all four land rounded side up, that is 모 (Mo), the best throw of all.

The results are traditionally linked to animals: Do the pig, Gae the dog, Geol the sheep, Yut the cow and Mo the horse, roughly in order of size and speed. Do moves one step, Gae two, Geol three, Yut four and Mo five.

For Back-Do, one of the four sticks carries a mark on its flat side. When the marked stick is the only one facing flat side up, the throw is Back-Do instead of Do. Families use long sticks thrown onto a mat or short “chestnut” sticks shaken in a small bowl; Yunnori throws four virtual sticks with a swipe or a tap.

A turn, step by step

Throw the four sticks. A Yut or Mo earns another throw, and the extra throws keep coming for as long as Yut or Mo does. Traditionally you collect every throw before moving; in Yunnori’s Practice Alone and Pass N Play modes you move after each throw and then throw again, which comes to the same set of moves.

Now spend the results one at a time. Each result moves one piece, or one stack, by its number of steps. You decide which piece gets which result, so a turn of Mo, Yut and Gae could send one piece eleven steps or split the moves among three pieces.

A result that no piece can use is lost. In Yunnori’s default rules that is rare: a forward move that runs past the exit simply finishes the piece. If your room requires an exact finish, though, a throw longer than a piece’s remaining path cannot be used by that piece, so late in the game a big result can go to waste.

Entering and moving pieces

Any forward result can bring a new piece onto the board: Do puts it on the first station beside 참먹이, Gae on the second, and so on, up to Mo, which places it straight onto the corner 모. Pieces that are already on the board move forward along the route they are on.

You can have as many pieces on the board as you like. Spreading out gives you more choices each turn; keeping pieces off the board keeps them safe, because a piece waiting at the start cannot be captured.

Capturing

If your move ends on a station holding an opponent’s pieces, all of them are captured and go back to the start. A capture earns one more throw. Bonuses add up: a Yut or Mo that also captures gives two more throws.

Only the station where a move ends counts. Passing over an opponent on the way does nothing, so a piece one step ahead of a rival is in danger from a Do, while a piece five steps ahead fears only a Mo. A captured piece has to start over from the beginning, so the further it had travelled, the bigger the loss.

Stacking (업기)

If your move ends on a station holding your own piece, they stack and move together as one from then on. A stack can hold any number of pieces. Stacks are fast but risky: if a stack is captured, every piece in it goes back to the start.

Stacking is often the quickest way home, because a single good throw carries two, three or even four pieces at once. The cost is that one capture can undo several pieces’ progress in a single move.

Corner shortcuts

The outer square has corners at stations 5 (모), 10 (뒷모) and 15 (찌모). A piece that lands exactly on one of these corners takes the diagonal toward the center on its next move. Passing over a corner mid-move does not count. From the center, pieces head straight down the last diagonal to the exit.

• From 모 the diagonal is the biggest saving: six steps take a piece from 모 through the center and off the board, against sixteen the long way round.
• From 뒷모 the diagonal also leads through the center to the exit in six steps, against eleven along the edge.
• From 찌모 the diagonal and the edge are the same length, six steps either way, so the corner matters less there.

Back-Do (빽도)

One stick is marked. If only the marked stick lands flat side up, the result is Back-Do: move one piece one step backward. Back-Do can capture and stack like any other move.

• A piece on the first station moves back off the board.
• A piece on a diagonal steps back along that diagonal; from the center it goes back along the diagonal it arrived on.
• If none of your pieces are on the board, Back-Do moves a waiting piece onto the first station, like Do.

Finishing and winning

A piece finishes when a move carries it past the last station, and going past counts: you don’t need an exact throw. On the outer route the last station is 참먹이 itself, so a piece standing on 참먹이 needs one more step to leave. A piece that came through the center does not pass 참먹이 at all: one step beyond the last station of the exit diagonal takes it straight off the board. The first player to finish all of their pieces wins.

Strategy basics

The sticks decide how far you may move, but you decide what moves. Most games are won by a few good choices rather than lucky throws.

• Aim for 모. A piece that stops exactly on 모 is six steps from home; one that runs past it has many more to go.
• Count your rival’s threats. With Back-Do on (Yunnori’s default), Gae and Geol are the most common results, so pieces two or three steps in front of an opponent are the most exposed.
• Capture when you can: it sends a rival back and gives you another throw, which often sets up your next move.
• Stack near the end, not the start. A stack close to home is hard to catch; a stack near the start has a long, dangerous road ahead.
• Keep a piece at the start as a threat. A waiting piece cannot be captured, and Do or Gae can still bring it in to strike a rival sitting near the entry.

Traditional rules and how Yunnori plays them

Yut Nori has never had one official rulebook, and the rules vary from family to family and region to region. These are the most common differences, with what Yunnori does in each case.

• Teams: at holiday gatherings people often play in two teams that share pieces and take turns throwing. In Yunnori each seat plays its own pieces; a team can share one seat by passing the phone.
• Sticks off the mat (낙): many families rule that a stick landing outside the mat or play area makes the throw void. Yunnori’s sticks always land in play, so there is no 낙.
• Back-Do: not every family uses a marked stick. Yunnori has Back-Do on by default, and an online room host can switch it off, in which case the marked-stick result simply counts as Do.
• Back-Do with nothing on the board: families disagree on whether the throw is wasted. In Yunnori it brings a waiting piece onto the first station, like Do.
• Passing through the center: some families let a piece that runs through the center without stopping carry straight on across the board. In Yunnori a piece that reaches or passes the center always continues down the diagonal toward the exit.
• Extra throw for a capture: almost universal, and on by default in Yunnori.
• Finishing: some families require an exact landing to bring a piece home. Yunnori lets a piece finish by going past, and online room hosts can switch on exact landing.
• Number of pieces: four each is standard; shorter games use fewer. Yunnori online rooms allow two, three or four pieces per player.

House rules in Yunnori

The host of an online room can change these:

• Back-Do on or off (on by default).
• Extra throw for a capture on or off (on by default).
• Stacking on or off (on by default).
• Finish by going past the end (default) or only by an exact landing.
• Two, three or four pieces per player (four by default).

A short history of Yut Nori

Yut Nori is a centuries-old Korean game and still one of the country’s best-known traditions. Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism notes that it appears to have been played as early as the Baekje kingdom, that poems about it were written in the Goryeo period, and that the 29-station board is said to represent the Big Dipper turning around the North Star.

In written records, early Joseon texts call the game 사희 (sahui) and later ones 척사 (cheoksa), and scholars such as Kim Mun-pyo (1568–1608) wrote about the meaning of the board. In November 2022 Korea’s Cultural Heritage Administration designated Yut Nori a National Intangible Cultural Heritage, as a community item that belongs to everyone who plays it rather than to named masters.

One of the earliest descriptions in English is Stewart Culin’s Korean Games (1895), which calls it the most popular game in Korea at the time. His account would be familiar to any family today: a 29-mark board, four sticks with a flat and a rounded side, two to four players, an extra throw for Yut and Mo, stacking, and capture with a bonus throw.

The six throws: 도·개·걸·윷·모·빽도

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

Sources

• Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Korea), 윷놀이 (in Korean)
• Financial News, “윷놀이” designated a National Intangible Cultural Heritage (Nov 11, 2022, in Korean)
• Stewart Culin, Korean Games, with Notes on the Corresponding Games of China and Japan (1895), Internet Archive