Shut the Box - Jaques Guide to the Game

Guide to playing, History or and Rules of this Excellent family Game

History of Shut the Box

The origin of Shut the Box is unknown but the game can be traced back to 19th Century France. The game did not appear in England, however, until the mid 20th Century.

Shut the Box is dice game for one or more players. The object of the game is to cover all the numbers, or 'shut the box' according to throws of the dice.

Shut the box being played

Shut the Box Game Rules

The game starts with the boxes open.
The object is for one player to close all the boxes with continuous throws of the dice. Any combination of numbers may be shut against those numbers shown on the dice, but once used may not be used again.
E.g. dice throwing 6+3=9. Boxes closed may be 1 – 8, 7 – 2,5 – 4,2 –3 – 4 etc.
When as many boxes as possible are shut, the numbers remaining are read off from left to right e.g. 1,4,6 remains equals 146. The next player then tries to score under 146.
Another way is to total the numbers remaining 1,4,6 =11. The next player then tries to score under 11
(a) A throw shutting all boxes automatically wins.
(b) When the last box to be closed is a 1 on it’s own, a single dice is used.

Jaques' Shut the Box and Buying Pub Games

Jaques' Handmade game is expertly crafted from polished hardwood including a baize lined tray. Dice and a copy of the rules of the game are included.

mahogany shut the box

Our Range to Buy Online

To see our full collection of Shut the Box sets along with our entire range of indoor games please click here to visit Jaques' online Indoor Games store.