What is Shut to win?
In the standard game here, shutting every tile in your box gives you a score of 0, the best score there is, but the game goes on: the remaining players still take their turns, and anyone else who shuts the box ties with you for a draw.
With shut to win switched on, shutting the box wins the game outright. The game ends the moment your last tile goes down, and players who haven't had their turn yet don't get one. Everything else is unchanged: if nobody shuts the box, the lowest score wins as usual, and equal lowest scores draw.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Shut the Box | Shut to win |
|---|---|---|
| Shutting the box | Standard Shut the BoxScores 0, and the game goes on. | Shut to winWins the game at once. |
| Players still to play | Standard Shut the BoxTake their turns as usual and may shut the box too. | Shut to winDon't play: the game is over. |
| Two shut boxes | Standard Shut the BoxBoth score 0 and the game is a draw. | Shut to winCan't happen: the first player to shut the box wins. |
| Other options | Standard Shut the BoxTen or twelve tiles, digital scoring and the one-die choice can be chosen. | Shut to winShut to win works with all of them. |
History
Shut the Box is a traditional pub game, and its pub rules are usually played for a pool: each player puts in an agreed stake at the start, and the winner takes it. Under the usual rules, a player who succeeds in shutting the box wins outright, immediately.
The game's origins are uncertain. It is often linked to the Channel Islands: Timothy Finn's Pub Games of England (1975) credits a man known as Chalky Towbridge with bringing it over from there in 1958, and a 1967 article in the Brewing Review describes it as native to the islands and played in Manchester pubs in the mid-1960s. Older origin stories, such as one placing it in twelfth-century Normandy, are undocumented.