How to play Shut the Box

Shut the Box is played with two dice and a wooden box with numbered tiles from 1 to 9. Some boxes go up to 10 or 12, but the game works the same way. No box is needed to play: write the numbers 1 to 9 on a piece of paper and cross them out instead of flipping tiles.

The game suits one to four players. Each player takes a full turn with all the tiles open.

On your turn, roll both dice and close tiles that add up to the total of the roll. If you roll 4 and 5, you can close 9, or 6 and 3, or 5, 3 and 1. You decide how to split the sum, but it must be covered exactly by open tiles.

Then roll again and carry on the same way. Your turn lasts as long as you can keep closing tiles. When the sum can no longer be made from the tiles that remain, your turn is over.

Once 7, 8 and 9 are closed, the player is usually allowed to choose between rolling one die or two.

When your turn ends, add up the numbers on the tiles still open. That is your score for the round, and low is good.

If you manage to close every tile, you have shut the box. You score zero, and many play that shutting the box wins the round outright.

Agree on a number of rounds before you start, five is common. The player with the lowest total score at the end wins. Alternatively, play on until someone shuts the box completely and let that player win the whole game.

House rules vary a lot from home to home:

• A common variant lets you use the dice separately instead of as a sum. Roll 2 and 6 and you may close the 2 and 6 tiles instead of the 8.
• A box that goes up to 10 or 12 makes the rounds longer and a little harder.
• Some play that only shutting the box counts as a win, with no point scoring at all.

Yes, and it is one of the most common ways to play. On your own, the goal is to shut the box completely, or to leave as little as possible and beat your own record. A round only takes a couple of minutes, so it is easy to have another go.

Yes. The game is really mental arithmetic dressed up as play. Children split sums into smaller numbers round after round without it feeling like practice. From around age six it works well with a little help at the start. Other simple dice games for kids include Pig and Fifty.