Carrom rules: how to play carrom, the queen, fouls and points

The board and the pieces

Carrom is a tabletop game from South Asia, played on a square plywood board about 74 centimetres across inside a raised wooden frame, with a round pocket in each corner. The surface is dusted with fine powder so the pieces slide. Each side has a pair of base lines with a red circle at both ends, and arrows point from the corners of the base lines toward the pockets.

There are nineteen pieces, called men or coins: nine white, nine black and one red queen. The striker is a larger, heavier disc, about four centimetres across and nearly three times the weight of a man. At the start the queen sits on the centre spot, six men ring her with the colours alternating, and twelve more form an outer ring.

Striking from the base line

On your turn you place the striker within your own base lines, between the two red circles, and flick it with a finger. You aim at a man to knock it into a pocket, directly, by cutting it at an angle, or off a cushion. The striker comes back to you after every strike.

Turns: pocket your own colour

One player plays white and the other black, and the player who breaks, striking first into the full circle of men, usually takes white. After the break you keep striking as long as you pocket at least one of your own men with each strike. The turn passes when you pocket nothing of yours.

Pocketing the rival's men does not help you. They stay in the pocket and count for the rival, and if you sink only their men your turn ends.

The queen and her cover

The red queen has to be covered. When you pocket her, you must also pocket one of your own men in the same strike or the very next one. Do that and the queen is yours. Miss, and she comes back to the centre spot for anyone to try again.

Under many club rules the queen may only be pocketed after you have sunk at least one of your own men. TabSpawn's carrom lets you take her at any time, but the cover rule still applies, so going for the queen with none of your men near a pocket is usually wasted.

Fouls

• Pocketing the striker: your turn ends and you pay a penalty, one of your pocketed men going back to the centre. In club rules any men you sank with the same strike come back too, and a player with nothing pocketed yet owes the penalty as a due.
• Pocketing your last man while the queen is still on the board: the man comes back. The queen must go down, and be covered, before your last man.
• In club play, touching any piece but the striker or striking from outside your base lines are fouls as well.

TabSpawn's carrom applies the first two for you. When the striker goes in, the men you sank with it come back; if you sank none, one you pocketed earlier returns.

Winning a board and counting points

A board ends when one player has pocketed all nine of their men, with the queen taken. The winner scores one point for every rival man still on the board, plus three points for the queen if the winner covered her. Clear the board while the rival still has seven men up and the queen in your pocket, and that board is worth ten points.

A full game is a series of boards. Tournament rules usually play a game to 25 points, and the queen's points stop counting once a player has 22. TabSpawn plays one board at a time and adds your wins against the computer to your Top 10 points.

Shots worth learning

• The straight shot: striker, man and pocket in one line. Use only the power that gets the man to the pocket.
• The cut: hit the man off-centre and it leaves at an angle; the thinner the contact, the sharper the angle and the more power you need.
• The rebound: bounce the striker off a cushion to reach a man you cannot hit directly, or bank a man off the cushion into a pocket.
• Along the rail: a man resting against the cushion goes in when you push it gently along the cushion toward the corner.
• The thumb shot: flicking with the thumb from the side reaches men near your own base line that a finger shot cannot.
• The safe touch: when nothing is on, nudge one of your men next to a pocket and leave the rival nothing easy.

Play carrom online free on TabSpawn

TabSpawn's carrom puts these rules on a board with real sliding physics, free in a browser tab with no download and no account. Slide the striker along your base line, press anywhere on the board and pull back to aim and set the power, then release. A guide shows the striker's path and the line the man it hits will take. Play the computer on Easy, Normal or Hard, pass one device between two players with the board turning for each striker, or clear all nineteen pieces alone on the practice table.

Questions