How to Play Carrom

Carrom (also spelt carom) is a tabletop game from India in which you flick a heavy disc, the striker, to knock smaller pieces into the four corner pockets of a square wooden board. Each player has nine pieces, white or black, and there is one red piece, the Queen. Pocket all your pieces first, after pocketing and “covering” the Queen, and you win the board. This guide follows the official Laws of Carrom used in Indian and international tournaments, and also covers the simpler point games most families play at home.

Carrom Rules at a Glance

Carrom Board and Pieces

• The board: a smooth plywood playing surface 73.5 to 74 cm square inside a wooden frame, with a round 4.45 cm pocket in each corner and a net under each pocket.
• Base lines: each side has two parallel lines 47 cm long, closed at both ends by red base circles. You must shoot from between your own base lines.
• Arrows: four diagonal lines point from the centre towards the pockets. Your elbow must stay behind them when you shoot.
• Centre and outer circles: the Queen starts on the red centre circle, and the pieces are set up inside the 17 cm outer circle.
• Carrom men: 9 white, 9 black and the red Queen, each 3.02 to 3.18 cm across. They are also called coins, pucks or seeds.
• Striker: up to 4.13 cm across and 15 g. It is bigger and heavier than the other pieces.
• Powder: a fine powder (boric acid is the most common) is spread on the board so the pieces slide.

How to Set Up a Carrom Board

Put the Queen on the centre circle. Around it, place six pieces in a ring, alternating black and white. In the outer ring of twelve, the three pieces straight out from the inner whites are white, making a “Y” shape, and the rest alternate. All 19 pieces should touch, inside the outer circle.

How to Play Carrom

1. Toss. The winner chooses either to break or to pick their side. The player who breaks plays white; the other player has black. The Queen belongs to nobody.
2. Break. The first shot of each board must touch at least one piece. You get three tries; after that, the break passes to your opponent. The break alternates from board to board.
3. Place the striker. The striker must touch both of your base lines. If you use a base circle, the striker must cover it completely, and it must not touch the arrow.
4. Shoot. Flick the striker with a finger; pushing it is not allowed. Keep your elbow behind the arrows, and don’t touch the board with anything but your playing arm. Getting up from your seat during a board loses the board. The International Carrom Federation allows thumbing (flicking with the thumb).
5. Keep going. Each time you pocket one of your own pieces (or the Queen, properly), you shoot again. Otherwise the turn passes to your opponent.
6. Win the board. The first player to pocket all nine of their pieces wins the board, provided the Queen has been pocketed and covered before the last one goes in.

The Queen and Covering

The red Queen can be pocketed by either player, but only after you have pocketed at least one of your own pieces. Once you pocket it, you must cover it by pocketing one of your own pieces on the next shot. If you don’t, the Queen goes back to the centre circle. If you pocket the Queen and one of your own pieces in the same shot, the Queen counts as covered. The exception is a shot made while all nine of your pieces are still on the board, such as the break: then the Queen is only covered if two or more of your pieces go in with it, and otherwise you still have to cover it on the next shot.

The Queen is worth 3 points, but only to the player who wins the board, and only until that player has 22 points. If the loser covered the Queen, nobody gets those 3 points.

Fouls, Dues and Penalties

When you break a rule, you give back pieces. A due is a piece you return for pocketing the striker; a penalty is one you return for a foul. Your opponent places returned pieces anywhere inside the outer circle. If you haven’t pocketed anything yet, the debt waits until you do.

Carrom Scoring

Example: you pocket your last piece with four black pieces still on the board and the Queen covered by you. You score 4 + 3 = 7 points for that board. Your opponent scores nothing; only the winner of a board scores.

Carrom Doubles

In doubles, partners sit opposite each other and play the same colour, so all four sides are used. The turn passes to the player on the right. Partners may not talk or signal to each other during a board.

Point Carrom and Other Versions

• Point carrom: a popular home game, good for children and for an odd number of players. Anyone can pocket any colour, each piece is worth a point, and the Queen still has to be covered.
• Family-point carrom: also any colour, but with bigger values. A common scheme is 10 for black, 20 for white and 50 for the Queen, so a player who misses the Queen can still catch up.
• North American carrom: developed around 1890, with smaller pieces shaped as rings instead of discs; some boards use miniature cue sticks instead of fingers.
• Japanese (Hikone) carrom: larger pockets, twelve pieces each and a “jack” that is pocketed last.

Carrom Tips for Beginners

• Powder the board. A thin, even layer makes pieces slide predictably. Too much makes everything run on.
• Aim at the far side of the piece. To send a piece into a pocket, strike the side of it opposite the pocket, so the line runs from pocket through piece to striker.
• Use the frame. Rebound shots off the frame reach pieces that are blocked or too close to your base line to hit cleanly.
• Take the Queen early when you can cover it. It has to be pocketed before your last piece, and waiting can leave you with no piece to cover it with.
• Don’t leave easy shots. If you can’t pocket anything, push your opponent’s pieces away from the pockets.

Where Carrom Comes From

Carrom comes from India; a carrom board with a glass playing surface survives in a palace in Patiala. State competitions were held in India in the early 20th century, and by 1958 India and Sri Lanka had national federations. The International Carrom Federation was founded in Chennai in 1988, the year the formal rules were published, and today there are national federations from the UK and the USA to Pakistan, Germany, Italy and Japan.

More Games to Try

For more games of skill, try checkers, Chinese checkers, mancala or Game of the Generals. For dice and family games, see Parcheesi and dominoes.

Carrom: frequently asked questions