Carromक्यारम

The board and the pieces

The board is a square of smooth plywood 74 cm across inside a raised wooden frame, with a round pocket about 4.5 cm across in each corner. That is wide enough for a coin, and for the striker too if you are not careful.

There are 19 coins: 9 white, 9 black and one red queen, each about 3.2 cm across. The striker is bigger (about 4.1 cm) and nearly three times as heavy, so it drives the coins it hits.

Each player has their own side of the board. In front of you are two baselines with a red circle at each end, and the diagonal arrows point from the corners towards the centre.

Setting up

The queen goes on the red spot in the middle. Six coins ring her, white and black in turn, and twelve more form an outer ring, all touching and inside the big centre circle. The white coins make a Y shape. This table sets the coins out for you at the start of every board.

Players, partners and turns

With two players you sit opposite each other. With four, partners sit opposite and play as a team: both sink the same colour and share the score.

Play passes to the right, round the board, so with four players the turns go to an opponent, then your partner, then the other opponent.

You always shoot from your own side.

Placing the striker

Before every shot, place the striker on your baseline. It may go anywhere between the two red end circles, or sit right over one of them, but it may not rest on top of a coin.

You may flick it in any direction: forwards, at an angle, or backwards at a coin that sits behind your baseline.

The break

The first shot of each board is the break, into the pack in the middle. The player who breaks plays white and the other side plays black.

The break must touch at least one coin. If the striker misses everything, try again. After three misses the turn passes to the next player, who breaks instead. The colours stay the same.

If the striker goes into a pocket without touching a coin on a try at the break, the turn passes straight away, but there is no penalty.

In a game of several boards, the break passes to the right each new board.

Your turn

Sink a coin of your own colour and you shoot again, as many times as you keep sinking them. Combination shots, rebounds off the frame and lucky ones all count.

Sink a coin of the other colour and it counts for the other side. Your turn ends, unless one of your own coins went in on the same shot.

Sink nothing and the turn passes.

The queen

You may sink the queen once you have pocketed at least one coin of your own colour, or on the same shot as your first one. Sink her before that, or while you owe a penalty coin, and she goes straight back to the centre.

After you sink the queen, you must cover her: sink one of your own coins with your very next shot. If you do, the queen is yours. If you miss, she goes back to the centre and the turn passes.

If the queen and one of your coins go in on the same shot, she is covered at once, whichever dropped first, even when that coin is your first.

Whoever covers the queen owns her for that board. She has to be covered before, or together with, your last coin.

Fouls and dues

Sinking the striker is a foul. As a penalty, one of the coins you have already pocketed comes back onto the board. If you have not pocketed one yet, you owe it: this is a due, paid with the next coin of yours that goes in.

Any of your own coins that went in with the striker come back too, but you shoot again. Coins of the other colour that went in stay pocketed and count for the other side.

If the queen went in with the striker, she goes back to the centre. If you were allowed to take her, you shoot again, just as when one of your own coins goes in with the striker. If she was waiting for her cover, she goes back too.

Coins that come back are set down on the centre spot, or as close to it as they fit.

How a board ends

A board ends when one side has no coins of its own colour left on the board.

• Sink your last coin after the queen has been covered, by either side, and you win the board.
• Sink your last coin while the queen is still on the board or waiting for her cover, and you lose the board.
• Sink the other side's last coin for them, and you lose the board as well.

Winning the game

Choose the length when you set up the table. With one board, whoever wins the board wins the game.

A full game is first to 25 points, or whoever leads after eight boards. If the score is level after the eighth board, play goes on, one board at a time, until one side is ahead.

Where these rules come from

Carrom clubs and tournaments in Nepal play to the Laws of Carrom of the International Carrom Federation. This table follows those Laws and the UK Carrom Federation's plain-English rules, which agree with them in all but one place, noted below:

• The board, the pieces, the baselines and the opening pattern: the Laws of Carrom, with the board measured to their sizes.
• Three tries at the break, your turn going on while you sink your own colour, the queen after your first coin with a cover on the next shot or the same one, and the striker foul costing a coin (two if one of yours went in too, and you shoot again): the Laws and the UK Carrom Federation.
• The queen covered when she goes in with your first coin, a turn that goes on when the queen goes in with the striker, and no penalty for sinking the striker on a try at the break: the Laws.
• Losing the board for sinking your last coin before the queen, or the other side's last coin: the UK Carrom Federation. The Laws agree, but score sinking your own last coin early as 3 points to the other side (1 from 22), where this table gives them their coins left plus 3.
• Board points, the queen's 3 points stopping at 22, and a game of 25 points or eight boards with extra boards on a tie: the Laws and the UK Carrom Federation. Wikipedia gives 21 for the queen limit; this table uses the Laws' 22.
• Family points: Wikipedia, which describes it as widely played across South Asia.
• Play passing to the right, so partners never shoot one after the other: the usual way four people play. The pages above do not spell out the order for doubles.

Game length

One board is the default: it takes about ten minutes and the winner of the board wins. Choose first to 25 points for the full game, which is the standard club game: it ends when one side reaches 25, or after eight boards with the leader winning.

Family points

The relaxed game many families play. Any coin counts for the side that sinks it: white is worth 20, black 10 and the queen 50. You may sink the queen at any time, and you still have to cover her with a coin on the same or the next shot. Sinking the striker returns the coins that went in with it, plus one of yours as a penalty. The board ends when every coin is pocketed, and it is always a single board.

House rules this table does not use

Some players count a sunk striker as minus 10 points instead of a coin, play three-handed for points, or let the queen go in after the last coin. This table plays the common rules above, so everyone knows where they stand.