Sho (board game)

Sho ( Tibetan : ཤོ ) is a traditional race game in Tibet, still common today. Its name is simply the Tibetan word for "dice". It is traditionally played for money and by men, with two to four players - three being the most common. With four players, the usual variant is to play as two teams of two, with the partners sitting opposite each other.
The "board" is formed by a circular line of shells, typically sixty-four in number.
Each player (or team) has nine identical playing pieces, which are usually old coins. In any case, the playing pieces have to be stackable. Two six-sided dice are used. They are placed in a wooden dice cup which is shaken and then slammed down onto a dice pad, typically made of. yak leather stuffed with yak wool, which forms the centre of the board, within the circle of shells.
The first player to move all nine coins from the beginning of the board to the end is the winner.
The shells are formed into a clockwise spiral shape around the dice pad. The spaces between the shells are the playing positions which can be occupied by the coins. As the coin stacks move around this dynamic playing board, the shells are rearranged to expand or contract the spiral and the spaces between the shells, which means the game has a very tactile feel to it.
Each playing position can be occupied by a coin or stack of coins from only one player. A stack of coins is moved as one unit. A stack can be increased but never reduced; a stack is destroyed when it is kicked out and all its coins are sent back to the start.
The players take turns to throw the dice. The player chooses which coin or stack to move from its current position to a new target position determined by moving it forward the number of positions (inter-shell spaces) corresponding to the throw of the dice - the total of the dice is taken so there is no difference between, say, the rolls (4,2), (5,1) or (3,3) - all are moved as 6. (This is unlike in backgammon, for example.)
Depending on whether and how this new target playing position is occupied, there are four possibilities:
If the player cannot move or if they simply place their coin/stack in a new space, play passes to the next play clockwise.
However, if the player can stack or kill, they roll and move again. If they again stack or kill, they roll again, and so on until they can only place or cannot move. So with the luck of the dice, game-changing sequences of moves can be achieved.
The only dice roll which has a special significance in the basic game is (1,1) which is called pa ra in Tibetan. This entitles the player to roll the dice again before they move and then choose from a selection of move values. For example, if the player rolls (1,1)=2 then (5,3)=8, the player has a choice of moving 2, 8, or 10 (=the sum of 2 and 8). Furthermore, if one of the two dice roll values (not the sum, so here either 2 or 8) is chosen and this leads to a kill or stack, the player then carries over the unused value to their subsequent roll. And so on if this also lead to a kill or stack. In this way, moves above the usual maximum roll of (6,6)=12 become possible.
For example:
These variants and others can be found among sho players with their personal and traditional preferences:
The game is often the focus of gambling. The most simple versions involves a fixed stake per game, which each player pays by placing the bank notes under the dice pad. The winner takes the combined stakes.