Carrom is a tabletop game played on a smooth wooden board, where players use a striker disc to pot smaller discs, called carrom men, into four corner pockets. It is played across South Asia and has a strong following in India, where it began developing into an organised competitive sport during the twentieth century.
Objective
Each player or pair aims to pocket all nine of their own coloured carrom men, either white or black, before their opponent does, and then pocket the red disc known as the queen. Whoever clears their pieces and correctly finishes the queen first wins that board.
Rules and regulations
- Play alternates turns, with a player continuing to strike as long as they keep potting their own coloured pieces.
- Potting the striker itself, or failing to pot anything, ends the turn and can cost a penalty piece.
- The queen may be pocketed at almost any stage but must immediately be “covered” by potting one of the player’s own pieces in the same turn; if it isn’t, the queen is returned to the centre of the board.
- The International Carrom Federation, founded in Chennai, frames the rules followed in world championships, and national bodies such as the Carrom Federation of India oversee the game domestically, where it remains one of the most widely played indoor games.
Equipment and playing area
- The standard board is a square wooden surface, commonly around 74 centimetres a side, with a pocket cut into each corner and lines marking the base and centre circles.
- Nine white and nine black carrom men, plus the single red queen, are arranged in a circle at the centre before each game.
- Players use a heavier striker disc, flicked with the fingers from within their base line, and boric acid powder is scattered on the board to help pieces slide freely.
Scoring
- Each opponent’s coin pocketed earns one point, while the queen is worth three points once properly covered.
- A game is usually won by whoever finishes their pieces and the queen first on a board, and matches are often played to a set number of points, commonly 25, across several boards.
