Carrom
Flick the striker, sink your coins and cover the queen. Play the bot or a friend on the same device.
Drag the striker along your baseline to place it (or use ← →, with Shift for fine steps). Then drag anywhere else on the board, away from where you want to shoot, and let go. A longer pull hits harder.
How to play
Carrom is played on a square wooden board with a pocket in each corner. There are 9 white coins, 9 black coins and one red coin, the queen. You take turns to flick the heavier striker from your baseline to knock your own coins into the pockets. The player who breaks plays white. The first player to pocket all their coins wins the board.
- Placing the striker: touch the striker (or anywhere on your baseline) and drag it sideways. It must sit on your baseline, between the two red circles, and can't overlap a coin.
- Shooting: drag anywhere on the board in the opposite direction to your shot, like pulling back a slingshot, and let go. The aim guide shows where the striker will first hit and where that coin will go.
- Pocket one of your coins and you shoot again. Pocket nothing, or only your opponent's coins, and the turn passes.
Rules used in this game
These are simplified from the International Carrom Federation (ICF) rules, the version played in clubs and tournaments.
| The queen | You may pocket the queen only after pocketing at least one of your own coins. Then you must cover it: pocket one of your own coins in the same shot or the next one. If you don't, the queen goes back to the centre. A covered queen is worth 3 extra points to the board winner who covered it. |
|---|---|
| Striker pocketed (foul) | Your turn ends. Any of your coins pocketed in that shot go back to the centre, plus one penalty coin from those you had already pocketed. If you have none yet, you owe a due, which is taken back the next time you pocket a coin. |
| Opponent's coins | Coins you pocket for your opponent stay pocketed and count for them. |
| Last coin | You can't finish the board while the queen is still on the board or not yet covered. If your last coin goes in too early, it comes back to the centre. |
| Winning the board | The first player with all 9 coins pocketed wins the board and scores 1 point for each of the opponent's coins left on the board, plus 3 for the queen if they covered it. In a game to 25 points, the queen's 3 points no longer count once the winner has 22 or more. |
Tips
- Aim at the ghost spot. To send a coin into a pocket, the striker has to hit the coin on the side facing away from the pocket. The guide's faint circle shows where the striker will touch the coin, and the short line shows where the coin goes.
- Don't overhit. A hard shot that pockets a coin often sends the striker into a pocket too, which is a foul. A medium shot is usually enough.
- Use the cushions. Coins sitting on your own baseline or behind it can be reached with a rebound off the side cushion.
- Plan the queen. Take the queen when one of your coins is sitting close to a pocket, so you can cover it with an easy next shot.
About the bot
The bot looks at every coin it may pocket and every pocket, works out the spot the striker must hit, and tries those shots from different places on its baseline. It plays out the best ones with the same physics as the board, then picks the one that pockets the most of its coins without fouling. Easy considers only a few shots and has an unsteady hand. Hard checks hundreds of shots and almost never misses an easy pocket. Your best winning streak against each level is saved in this browser.
About carrom
Carrom comes from South Asia and is one of the most popular games in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, where boards are found in homes, schools and clubs. The International Carrom Federation was founded in 1988 and runs world championships. The board in this game uses the official ICF sizes: a 74 cm playing surface, pockets 4.45 cm across, coins 3.18 cm across and a 4.13 cm striker that is nearly three times heavier than a coin.