Snakes & Ladders

Snakes and ladders, or Chutes and ladders, is a classic children's board game. It is played between 2 or more players on a playing board with numbered grid squares. more...

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On certain squares on the grid are drawn a number of "ladders" connecting two squares together, and a number of "snakes" or "chutes" also connecting squares together. The size of the grid (most commonly 8×8, 10×10 or 12×12) varies from board to board, as does the exact arrangement of the chutes and the ladders: both of these may affect the duration of game play. As a result, the game can be represented as a state absorbing Markov chain.

The game was sold as Snakes and ladders in England before Milton Bradley introduced the basic concept in the United States as Chutes and ladders, an "improved new version of ... England's famous indoor sport."

Its simplicity and the see-sawing nature of the contest make it popular with younger children, but the lack of any skill component in the game makes it less appealing for older players.

History

The game was played widely in ancient India by the name of Moksha Patamu, the earliest known Jain version Gyanbazi dating back to 16 century. 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 good virtues such as Generosity, Faith, Humbleness, etc., and the Snakes represented evil virtues such as lust, anger, murder, theft, etc. The moral of the game was that a person can attain Moksha (Salvation) faster by doing good deeds whereas by doing evil one takes rebirth in lower forms of life (Patamu). The number of Ladders were lesser than the number of Snakes to remind people that treading the path of good is very difficult as compared to committing sins. Presumably the number "100" represented Moksha (Salvation).

Playing

Each player starts with a token in the starting square (usually the "1" grid square in the bottom left corner, or simply, the imaginary space beside the "1" grid square) and takes turns to roll a single die to move the token by the number of squares indicated by the die roll, following a fixed route marked on the gameboard which usually follows a boustrophedon track from the bottom to the top of the playing area, passing once through every square. If, on completion of this move, they land on the lower-numbered end of the squares with a "ladder", they can move their token up to the higher-numbered square (known as "climbing the ladder"). If they land on the higher-numbered square of a pair with a "snake" (or chute), they must move their token down to the lower-numbered square (known as "sliding down the snake/chute").

Read more at Wikipedia.org