“Yut nori,” a traditional Korean board game enjoyed especially during the Lunar New Year, will soon become a national intangible cultural heritage item.

The Cultural Heritage Administration announced on Monday that it plans to designate the board game as an intangible cultural asset, noting yut nori's value given the game's long history, its inclusion in several historical records such as the Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty, and its usage as a subject of academic research.

Estimated to have been played as early as the Three Kingdoms period, yut nori is based on the Korean people’s understanding of the universe and astronomy at the time – the yin and yang as well as the 28 constellations.

The traditional board game is played with two players or teams throwing four wooden sticks into the air and moving their pieces based on how the sticks land. The first to move all tokens around the board wins.