1. Checkers. A board game that appeared very similar to checkers (called "Draughts" in Great Britain} was discovered in the ruins of the ancient city of Ur in modern day Iraq. This board game dates to about 3000 B.C. Checkers as we know it today has been around since 1400 B.C. In Egypt, a similar game was called Alquerque.

2.Chess originated in Persia and India about 4000 years ago. A very early form of chess was called Chaturanga, a four handed game played with dice. Chess pieces were carved miniature elephants, horses, chariots and foot soldiers. Modern Chess as we know it today is about 2000 years old. The Persians and Arabians called the game Shatranj. Chess and cards were introduced to North America by Christopher Columbus.

3. Mancala. The word "Mancala" means "to transfer" in Arabic. This game, which by some estimates is 7000 years old, challenges players to move pieces from bin to bin. Many rule variations exist, and Mancala is played in some form in almost every African country.
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4. Mah Jongg. With roots dating back to 800 AD, Mah Jongg is the youngest game on this list. Originally a card game, Mah Jongg today is played with beautifully etched tiles. The modern version of Mah Jongg probably was first played sometime in the 1800s in China.

The Royal Game Of Ur (The Game Of Twenty Squares)
An ancient game of skill and chance for two players, ages 10 to adult. Reproduced from the oldest game in the world (2,500 B.C.) found in the ruins of the ancient city of UR.

Wei Chi (Go)
The earliest mention of Go appears in the "Analects" of Confucius (551-479 BC), while the earliest physical evidence is a 17x17 Go board discovered in 1952 in a tomb of the former Han dynasty (206 BC- 9 AD). There is a tangle of conflicting popular and scholarly anecdotes attributing its invention to two Chinese emperors, an imperial vassal and court astrologers. One story has it that Go was invented by the legendary Emperor Yao (ruled 2357-2256 BC) as an amusement for his idiot son. A second claims that the Emperor Shun (ruled 2255-2205 BC) created the game in hopes of improving his weak-minded son's mental prowess. A third says the person named Wu, a vassal of the Emperor Jie (ruled 1818-1766 BC), invented Go (as well as games of cards). Finally, a fourth story suggests that Go was developed by court astrologers during the Zhou dynasty (1045-255 BC).

Mancala
Mancala is not one game, but a family of pit-and-pebble games. Play involves scooping up pebbles from a pit and sowing the pebbles, one at a time, into the other pits. These games were probably created in Africa hundreds (if not thousands) of years ago.

Moksha Patamu (Snakes & Ladders)
The game was played widely in ancient India by the name of Moksha Patamu, the earliest known Jain version Gyanbazi dating back to 16th century. The game was called "Leela" - and reflected the Hinduism consciousness around everyday life. Impressed by the ideals behind the game, a newer version was introduced in Victorian England in 1892, possibly by John Jacques of Jacques of London. Moksha Patamu was perhaps invented by Hindu spiritual teachers to teach children about the effects of good deeds as opposed to bad deeds. The ladders represented virtues such as generosity, faith, humility, and the snakes represented vices such as lust, anger, murder, theft. The number of ladders was less than the number of snakes as a reminder that treading the path of good is very difficult compared to committing sins. Presumably the number "100" represented Moksha (Salvation).

Halma (Chinese Checkers)
Halma (from the Greek word meaning "jump") is a board game invented in 1883 or 1884 by an American plastic surgeon at Harvard Medical School, George Howard Monks. An English game called Hoppity was the inspiration.

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