How to Play Shut the Box
One minute to learn. The rest of the evening to argue about.
What you need
A Shut the Box board with numbered tiles, usually 1 to 9, 10 or 12, and two dice. Every tile starts flipped up.
A turn
- Roll both dice and add them up.
- Flip down any combination of open tiles that equals the total. A roll of 8 could shut the 8, or 5 and 3, or 1, 3 and 4.
- Roll again and repeat.
- Your turn ends when no combination of open tiles matches the roll.
Scoring
Add up the tiles still standing. That is your score for the round, and low is good. Shut every tile and you have shut the box, which wins the round outright. Play a set number of rounds or play to an agreed total.
House rules worth trying
- One die: once the 7, 8 and 9 are down, a player may choose to roll a single die.
- Digits: read the remaining tiles as a number rather than a sum, so 1, 3 and 5 score 135.
- Four at once: on a four-sided board everyone plays their own row with the same roll.
Ready to play? The boards are on the Shut the Box shelf.
