Pente Grammai (Five Lines)

How to play Pente Grammai (Five Lines)?

Pente Grammai, meaning “five lines,” is a dice and racing game that has been played in Ancient Greece since at least the 7th century BCE. Two players compete with five pieces each at the ten points where five parallel lines intersect; the central line is the “sacred line.” Since the original rules are lost, the version on the Oyun Treni website follows the reconstruction by the University of Fribourg’s Locus Ludi project and uses the same rule engine as our Pente Grammai mobile app. You play with the red pieces; you can compete against the computer at Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulty levels, or play against a friend on the same device.

1. There are five parallel lines on the board; each line has a dot at each end (for a total of ten dots). The middle line is the sacred line.
2. Each player has five pieces waiting off the board. Players take turns rolling a single die; Red (you) rolls first.
3. The pieces move counterclockwise: from left to right along your own row, then across to the opponent’s side and back along their row to the sacred point on their side—a total of eight steps. If it is possible to place a piece on the board, you must do so.
4. A single stone stands at one point; you cannot land on your own stone, but you can jump over the stones. At both ends of the sacred line, each side can place as many stones as they wish, and the stones there are safe.
5. Under the "send-back" rule, if you land exactly on top of an opponent's piece, that piece is removed from the board and starts over; under the "race" rule, you cannot do this.
6. You can only enter the opponent’s sacred zone with a perfect roll. If there is no legal move, it’s the next player’s turn. The first player to move all five of their stones to the sacred zone wins.

Pente Grammai (Five Lines) strategy tips

• The first two points on your own path are also the final stops on your opponent’s path; the stone waiting there can be sent back, so don’t wait too long at these points.
• The sacred spot on your side is a safe haven: move a piece that’s in danger there, then wait for an opportunity to advance it.
• The opponent’s pieces that have just crossed to the other side are the most valuable targets: sending that piece back causes the opponent to lose almost his entire path.

Pente Grammai (Five Lines) history

Pente Grammai (“five lines”) is one of the oldest board games played in Ancient Greece. Game boards with five lines found in the Anagyrous tombs in Attica date back to the 7th century BCE; the poet Alcaeus mentions the game around 600 BCE, and vases dating to around 500 BCE depict Achilles and Ajax playing at a board.

The game’s most famous rule is the expression “moving a stone from the sacred line”: a stone that reaches the center line is generally not moved from its position, so the expression refers to a move of last resort. In the 2nd century AD, Iulius Pollux described the game in his encyclopedia. The original rules are lost; the version on the Oyun Treni website is based on the Locus Ludi project’s reconstruction.

Other names: Five Lines, Five Lines, Five Letters, The Sacred Line Game