Pachisi is a board game thought to originate in India; it is described as the national game of India. It is played on a board shaped like a symmetrical cross. A player's pieces move around the board based upon a throw of six or seven cowries (the number of shells landing aperture upwards indicating the number of places to move).

The name of the game comes from the Hindu word pachis, meaning twenty-five, the largest score that can be thrown with the cowrie shells. Thus the game is also known by the name Twenty-five.

Each player's objective is to move all four of their pieces completely around the board, anticlockwise, before their opponents do. The pieces start and finish on the Charkoni.

The playing order is decided by each player throwing the cowries. The player with the highest score starts, and turns continue anticlockwise around the board.

Each player's first piece may leave the Charkoni on any throw. Each player moves their pieces down the centre column of their own arm of the board, then anticlockwise around the outside columns.

A player may have any number of their pieces on the board at one time. One piece only may be moved with a single throw, or if the player chooses, they can decline to move any piece on a throw.

If a 6, 10 or 25 is thrown, the player gets a grace. This enables them to introduce another of their pieces from the Charkoni onto the board, and they also get to repeat their turn.

More than one piece of the same team may occupy a single square. However a piece may not move onto a castle square that is already occupied by an opponent's piece.

If a piece lands on a square (other than a castle square) occupied by any number of the opponent's pieces, those pieces are captured and must return to the Charkoni. Captured pieces may only enter the game again with a grace throw. A player making a capture is allowed another turn.

A piece completes its trip around the board by moving back up its central column. Returning pieces may be placed on their side in order to distinguish them from pieces that have just entered. A piece can only return to the Charkoni by a direct throw.

Four of the castle squares are placed so that they are exactly 25 moves from the Charkoni. A common strategy is for returning pieces to stay on these squares, where they are safe from capture, until a 25 is thrown. Then they can finish the game directly. This is where the name of the game comes form

Megara (Greek: ÌÝãáñá) is an ancient city in Attica, Greece, on the Saronic Gulf opposite the island of Salamis, which belonged to Megara in archaic times, before being taken by Athens. Megara was one of the four districts of Attica, embodied in the four mythic sons of King Pandion, of whom Nisos was the ruler of Megara.

In historical times, colonists from Megara (c. 667 BC) founded Byzantium, as well as Chalcedon and, in Sicily, Megara Hyblaea, a small polis north of Syracuse. The most famous citizen of Megara in antiquity was Euclid. The 6th-century poet Theognis also came from Megara. The Megarans were proverbial for their generosity in building and endowing temples. Jerome, in 409 AD. (letter cxxiii.15 [1]  (http://www.ccel.org/fathers/NPNF2-06/letters/lette123.htm)) reports "There is a common saying about the Megarians... "They build as if they are to live forever; they live as if they are to die tomorrow."

In the Peloponnesian War (c. 431 BC-404 BC), Megara was an ally of Sparta.

Today, Megara is a suburb of Athens. 30,000 people live within the municipality. It is located 42 km WNW of Athens, and is linked by a highway connecting the Peloponnese, Western Greece, and Athens. It will now be linked by a high-speed rail line. Megara is a town lying in the Megaris plain, and much of the municipality is in this plain. Agriculture used to dominate before houses began developing in Megara in the 1960s and the 1970s. 3 km south is a small community lying about less than 1 km north of the island of Salamis, called Pachi. The population is small. There is a bridge (to some residents) that will connect the island with the mainland, but is not yet planned. Neos Peramos is the neighboring city to the east and Kakia Skala to the west. The area also has an military airport in the east northeast. South of the city is the Megara Bay.