How to Play Yut Nori

By Jaques of London · Est. 1795 · Updated 2026-08-17

Yut Nori is a Korean board race game for 2 to 4 players in which teams move pieces around a cross-shaped track using throws of four flat wooden sticks. Simple to learn in minutes, it rewards genuine tactical thinking once you understand the branching shortcuts at the centre and corners of the board.

It is a staple of Korean family gatherings, particularly during the Lunar New Year holiday, and is played outdoors and indoors alike. Its appeal lies in the combination of luck from the throw and real decisions about which piece to move and whether to risk a shortcut.

A little history

Yut Nori is one of Korea's oldest documented games, with references appearing in historical texts from at least the Three Kingdoms period, though its precise origins are unclear. It is widely regarded as having been played for over a thousand years and is deeply associated with Korean festive culture. The game has been transmitted through families across generations largely through oral tradition rather than written rulebooks, which accounts for the regional variation in rules still seen today.

Setting up

1. Place the board flat so all players can reach it comfortably.
2. Decide on teams. With 2 players each controls one team; with 3 or 4 players, pair up into two teams of one or two people each.
3. Give each team a set of 4 pieces (mals) in their colour. All pieces start off the board.
4. Agree on the starting point, which is the bottom-right corner of the board, marked as the entry and exit point.
5. Decide which team throws first, typically by each team throwing once and giving the first turn to whoever scores highest.

How to play

1. Teams alternate turns. On your turn, throw all four yut sticks at once.
2. Each stick has a flat side (counts as 1) and a rounded side (counts as 0). Count how many flat sides land face up to determine your move score: 1 flat = Do (move 1), 2 flat = Gae (move 2), 3 flat = Geol (move 3), 0 flat = Yut (move 4, throw again), 4 flat = Mo (move 5, throw again).
3. When you score Yut or Mo, you earn a bonus throw immediately. You may use the extra move on the same piece or a different one.
4. Choose one of your pieces already on the board and move it forward by the number of spaces shown, or use your result to enter a new piece onto the board from the start corner.
5. If your piece lands exactly on a corner of the board (the four corner intersections), it may take the diagonal shortcut through the centre on its next move rather than continuing around the outer track. If it lands on the centre intersection, it may exit along either diagonal arm toward the finish.
6. If your piece lands on a space already occupied by an opponent's piece, the opponent's piece is sent back off the board and must re-enter from the start. The attacking player earns a bonus throw.
7. If your piece lands on a space already occupied by one of your own team's pieces, the two pieces stack and travel together as a single unit for all future moves. A stacked unit is sent back together if captured.
8. A piece exits the board by moving past the start/finish corner. You must not overshoot; if your move count would carry a piece beyond the exit point, the excess steps are wasted and the piece exits successfully. (Some regional rules require an exact count to exit; agree this before play.)
9. Continue playing until one team has moved all four of its pieces around the board and off.

Winning and scoring

The first team to successfully move all four of their pieces around the entire track and off the board at the finish corner wins the game. There is no points system in standard play; it is a straight race. In some regional variants, teams play a best-of-three or best-of-five series of rounds to determine the overall winner.

The fine points

The most common dispute concerns the exit rule: many families play that a piece must land exactly on the exit corner to leave the board, while others allow any roll that reaches or passes it to count as an exit. Agree this before play begins. A second frequent dispute involves the shortcut corners: a piece only qualifies for the diagonal shortcut if it lands exactly on a corner space, not if it passes through it. If a piece is moved through a corner mid-count, it does not branch; only a piece that stops there earns the shortcut option on its next turn.

When a stacked unit is captured by an opponent, both pieces in the stack return to start together and must re-enter as a unit. They do not separate on capture. Additionally, a bonus throw earned by capturing an opponent and a bonus throw earned by scoring Yut or Mo on that same turn are cumulative: you take all earned bonus throws in sequence before play passes to the other team.

How to win more often

• Prioritise stacking your own pieces whenever possible. A stacked pair is harder to lose to a single capture and moves two pieces simultaneously, which can halve your remaining work.
• Use the diagonal shortcuts aggressively. A piece that enters via the bottom corner and hits the right-side corner can cut across through the centre and exit in far fewer moves than one travelling the full outer track.
• When you have multiple pieces on the board, always consider whether moving a trailing piece is safer than advancing a leading one that is in range of an opponent.
• Target opponent stacks when you can. Sending two of their pieces back to start with a single capture is the most powerful swing in the game.
• Do not enter a new piece when an existing piece already on the board can make better use of the roll. Entering a piece is rarely the right play mid-game unless all your pieces are blocked or at risk.

Variations

Exact Exit Rule

In this widely played variant, a piece must land on the exit corner with an exact count to leave the board. If the roll exceeds the number of spaces needed, the piece bounces back from the exit corner by the excess number of steps. This adds tension to the endgame and can dramatically extend a match.

Team Play with Four Players

With four players, partners sit opposite each other and share a pool of four pieces between them. Either partner may move any of the team's pieces on their turn. This version adds a communication and coordination layer and is the standard tournament format in Korea.

Multiple Boards (Relay Format)

In this festival variant, two boards are placed end to end and teams must race all pieces across both boards in sequence before any can exit. This significantly extends play time and is traditionally used for large outdoor gatherings where a longer game is desirable.

No Stacking

Some households play without the stacking rule entirely, meaning each piece always moves independently and landing on a friendly piece has no special effect. This simplifies decisions for younger players and shortens the game, making it well suited to a first introduction for children aged 6 to 8.

Yut Nori: frequently asked questions