Carrom Rules
The basic laws of Carrom game are quite simple. The rules below are the necessary rules to get you started. touchCarrom implements all the rules applicable to an online play and not subject to a referee interpretation. Following rules should also help you while playing the game with a real board. We also encourage you to visit other references online to get a complete list of all official rules (e.g. www.carrom.org).
Game Equipment
Board
A carrom board has about 29 inches (74 cms) of the playing surface. The board is made out of wood and contains four baselines for placing the striker, the center circle and pockets. A carom board looks as following.
Carrom-men (c/m)
Carrom-men are round wooden pieces with smooth surface. This allows for a smooth movement when stuck by a Striker. There are nine white and nine black carrom-men on board upon start.
Queen
The queen is a red round wooden piece exactly the same size as c/m. There is only one queen, which is common for all the players. The queen must be covered by pocketing a c/m, immediately after it is pocketed. The queen points are counted only if the player who pocketed the queen also wins the board.
Striker
A Striker is used to hit (or strike) the carrom-men on a carrom board. A striker is about 1.625 inches (4.13 cms) in diameter. A Striker is generally made of plastic or man made ivory.
Scoring
- Player striking first plays white carrom-men (c/m).
- The Striker can be placed anywhere in the baseline but should not intercept the base-circle. The Striker can be fully placed on base-circle but not partially.
- Pocketing your color of c/m will get you one point. If you sink your opponents c/m, he gets a point.
- Pocketing your Striker will cost you one point. If you don't have any c/m pocketed, the point (c/m) is due and is placed up on first available instance.
- If the queen is pocketed before any other c/m has be pocketed, it is brought back to the center.
- Player who finishes all the c/m of the assigned color wins the board. The board points are calculated based on the number of c/m pocketed minus number of opponents c/m plus three points for the queen, if the player finishing the board first also pockets the queen.
- If a player finishes all the c/m while the queen is still in the game, the player loses by tree points plus one point for each remaining piece of the opponents c/m.
- One c/m equals one point, queen equals three points. Queen's three points are counted only if that player also wins the board.
- Pocketing your own Striker costs you one c/m. The c/m is due if your score is zero. The due c/m is placed in the center of the board.
- A match is won from best of three games. A game is won by getting twenty five points or best of eight boards, whichever comes first.
See more info on other noteworthy Carrom Sites
