What is Snakes & Ladders on an 8×8 board?
The small board has 64 squares in eight rows of eight instead of 100 in rows of ten. The squares wind up the board in the same way: the first row runs left to right, the next right to left, and so on up to square 64 in the top corner.
The board has its own layout of seven ladders and five snakes. There are more ladders than snakes, the snakes are short, and none of them drops a token more than about two rows. No ladder ends at the foot of another ladder or at the head of a snake, and no snake ends at the foot of a ladder, so every climb and every slide is a single move.
Everything else is the standard game: roll the die, move your token that many squares, climb a ladder you land at the foot of, slide down a snake you land on the head of, and reach square 64 with an exact roll to win. With fewer squares and gentler snakes, a game is over in about two thirds of the turns the standard board takes, which suits young players and a quick round.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Snakes & Ladders | Snakes & Ladders on an 8×8 board |
|---|---|---|
| Board | Standard Snakes & Ladders10 × 10, squares 1 to 100. | Snakes & Ladders on an 8×8 board8 × 8, squares 1 to 64. |
| Ladders | Standard Snakes & Ladders11 ladders, the longest from 28 to 84. | Snakes & Ladders on an 8×8 board7 ladders, the longest climbing 17 squares (3 to 20 and 11 to 28). |
| Snakes | Standard Snakes & Ladders10 snakes, some of them long: 62 drops to 19 and 49 to 11. | Snakes & Ladders on an 8×8 board5 short snakes; the longest drops 16 squares, from 46 to 30. |
| Finish | Standard Snakes & LaddersAn exact roll onto square 100 wins. | Snakes & Ladders on an 8×8 boardAn exact roll onto square 64 wins. |
| Game length | Standard Snakes & LaddersAbout 34 turns for a token on its own to reach the end, in our simulations. | Snakes & Ladders on an 8×8 boardAbout 20 turns. With four players, about 11 turns each against about 17 on the standard board. |
| Other options | Standard Snakes & LaddersBounce back and the rules for sixes can be changed in the setup. | Snakes & Ladders on an 8×8 boardBounce back still applies, counted from square 64; a 6 rolls again as in the standard game. |
History
The size of the grid varies, and the most common sizes are 8×8, 10×10 and 12×12 squares. The 10×10 board of 100 squares is the best known: the earliest known English version, registered in October 1892, had a spiral track of 100 numbered spaces, and the American edition released in 1943 is played on a 10×10 board.
The layout of this 8×8 board was designed for this site. It follows the English tradition of a forgiving board: the Indian versions of the game had more snakes than ladders, a reminder that doing good is harder than doing wrong, while the English versions balanced them.