How to play Carrom

In carrom you flick a striker to knock coins into the four corner pockets. In Classic, you aim to sink your nine coins and cover the red queen before the other side does. In Points, every piece scores, and the highest total wins.

Carrom boards are a fixture in homes and courtyards across Nepal and South Asia, and house rules vary. This guide follows the game as it plays on Dashain.

Carrom uses 19 coins and a striker: nine white coins, nine black coins and one red queen. The striker is bigger and heavier than the coins, and it never scores.

The board is square, with a pocket in each corner. Along each side runs a baseline, two painted lines with a red circle at each end. Your striker sits anywhere on your baseline, from one circle to the other.

The coins start in the centre circle: the queen in the middle, six coins around her and twelve around those, with two white coins in line between the queen and the player who breaks.

You will meet these words at the board and in these rules.

Striker

The disc you shoot from your baseline to hit the coins.

Queen

The red coin. She is worth 5 to a Classic winner who covered her, or 50 in Points.

Cover

Sinking another coin with the queen or on your next shot, so she counts. In Classic it must be one of yours.

Break

The opening shot into the pack of coins. You get three tries.

Baseline

The painted line along your side of the board, where the striker sits.

Foul

A shot that breaks a rule. It ends your turn and costs you a coin.

Due

A penalty coin you owe after a foul with nothing pocketed. Your next coin pays it.

Board

One game, from the break to the win.

You break by shooting the striker into the pack in the centre, and you get three tries to move it. The site picks the breaker at random, and in Classic the breaker's side plays white.

• Any coin moving or dropping counts as a break.
• If all three tries fail, the break passes to the next player, who gets three tries too.
• Sink one of your own coins and you shoot again. In Classic, sinking an opponent's coin is a foul even on the break, and pocketing the striker always is.

To take a shot, place the striker on your baseline and flick it up the board.

• The striker sits anywhere on your baseline, from one red circle to the other. It can't sit on top of a coin.
• The shot must go forward. You can angle it steeply, but not backwards.
• You may hit any coin, directly or off a cushion, except one touching your own baseline (or behind it): that one you can only reach off a cushion or another coin. Missing is not a foul, but your turn ends.

On Dashain you aim the way you line up a pool shot:

1. 1Slide the striker along your baseline by dragging it, with the slider, or with the arrow keys.
2. 2Pull back from the striker like a slingshot. The further you pull, the harder the shot.
3. 3Follow the guide: the line shows the striker's path, and the arrow shows where the first coin it hits will run.
4. 4Let go to shoot, or let go close to the striker to cancel.

On a keyboard, A and D turn the aim, the up and down arrows set the power, and Space shoots.

You shoot again whenever you sink a piece that counts for you without a foul: one of your own coins or a legal queen in Classic, any piece in Points. Otherwise the turn passes to the next player clockwise.

You cover the queen by sinking one of your own coins on the same shot or your next one. One coin is enough. Until she is covered, she doesn't count.

• In Classic, you can take her only once one of your coins is already pocketed. Sink her earlier, even with your first coin on the same shot, and your turn goes on, but she goes back to the centre when it ends.
• Pocket her alone and you shoot again to cover her. Miss the cover, or foul, and she goes back to the centre.
• In Points, you can take her at any time, and any other coin covers her.
• With the Nepali queen (a Classic option), one coin doesn't cover her: after pocketing her, you must sink every coin of yours still on the board in the same turn. If your turn ends first, she goes back to the centre and the coins you sank stay down. So the board is won with the queen and your last coins together.

In Classic, nobody can finish the board until the queen is covered, by either side.

Classic has four fouls: pocketing the striker, sinking an opponent's coin, sinking your opponent's last coin, and sinking your last coin before the queen is covered, unless that shot covers her. In Points, pocketing the striker is the only foul.

A foul ends your turn, and then:

• In Classic, coins you sank for yourself on that shot stay down, but the queen goes back to the centre. An opponent's coin you sank stays down and counts for them, unless it was their last: that one comes back. Your own last coin, sunk before the queen is covered, comes back too.
• In Points, coins you sank on that shot go back to the centre, and so does the queen.
• One coin you have pocketed goes back as a penalty: one of your colour in Classic, or your cheapest in Points (black before white), with its points. The queen is never taken.
• With nothing pocketed yet, you owe a due. The next coin you sink pays it and goes back to the centre, but you still shoot again.

Returned coins go on the free spot nearest the centre.

You win a Classic board by sinking all nine of your coins once the queen is covered, by either side. Only the winner scores:

Clear your nine with four of theirs left and the queen covered by you, and you score 9.

Each game on Dashain is one board. The host can then start a rematch, with a new breaker drawn at random. Tournament rules play a longer match over several boards.

In Points, every piece scores for whoever sinks it, whatever its colour.

• Sinking any piece earns another shot.
• The queen still needs a cover, from any coin, on the same shot or the next.
• When every piece is off the board, the highest total wins. Ties can happen.

In doubles, four players form two teams of two, with partners sitting opposite. Turns go clockwise, so the teams alternate. Partners share a colour in Classic or a total in Points, and a foul by either partner costs the team. Players pick their teams in the lobby.

Before the board starts, the host picks the format, the rules and a shot clock:

• Players: 1 v 1, 2 v 2 in teams, or Everyone, with three or four each alone.
• Rules: Classic or Points. Classic is for 1 v 1 and 2 v 2 only.
• Shot clock: off, 20, 30 or 45 seconds. It is a reminder, not a hard limit.

Each player chooses their own view: top-down 2D, 3D, or Auto, which uses 3D in landscape and 2D on an upright phone. There are no computer players, so every seat is a person.

To play better, control your power, use the whole baseline and plan the queen.

• Start soft. Power builds slowly at first, so short pulls give gentle taps.
• Slide the striker along your line to find a straighter angle to a pocket.
• Bank off a cushion to reach coins behind your baseline.
• In Classic, take the queen when one of your coins sits near a pocket, and keep a coin back until she is covered.
• Leave your opponent's last coin alone.