How To Play Carrom Game? | Rules, Fouls, Scoring, & Tips

How To Play Carrom Game? | Rules, Fouls, Scoring, & Tips
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Carrom is a popular indoor tabletop game. The carrom game is commonly played in a group in India often at social events with family or with friends. Carrom is generally played by two or four people.

It originated from India and was believed to be invented by the Indian Maharajas. The carrom board game has grown progressively over time and now there are now many clubs that hold tournaments and competitions. While it has always been a popular pastime in India, the carrom game is also gaining popularity in the west.

The game is also known by many other names around the globe such as carrom, couronne, carum, karam, karom, karum, and finger billiards.

Follow along to learn how to play carrom and what are the carrom board game rules.

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Objective of Carrom Board game

The carrom game is played on a polished square wooden board with the following pieces:-

Carrom board game coins-

  • There are 9 white pieces and 9 black pieces. Each color is assigned to a player. These are smooth, wooden pieces.
  • The red piece is the queen, and it can be pocketed any time after pocketing the first piece.
  • There is a heavier striker made of hard plastic

In each round, the players attempt to use the striker to knock these pieces into the board's pockets. The objective of the carrom game is to sink all of your carrom men, using the heavier striker, in any of the pockets (called pocketing) before your opponent. Your turn continues for as long as you are pocketing your carrom men.

Carrom game Board Rules

Is carrom played at the international level?

Most players follow the simplified carrom game rules while playing with friends and family. However, the formal international carrom rules are followed by the International Carrom Federation and the various organized tournaments worldwide.

Why carrom game is not included in the Olympics?

The Olympic Games are not sports that involve more mental activity than physical endurance. The idea is to demonstrate some amount of physical activity and carrom is considered more of a mind game.
However, the concept is a bit bizarre as carrom in the Olympics involves physical activities. Unlike the game of chess, which is based entirely on cognitive functionality, carrom game demonstrates the skill of force, agility, as well as mental strength. However, the game lacks popularity.

What is double due in carrom game?

There are many possibilities when you say that the last one in carrom is a double deuce.
If you only pocket the striker, your turn will be lost. Also one of your coins will be snatched by your opponent to keep it in carrom. If this happens because of an improper stroke, you will lose your turn. Your two coins will be taken out to be kept by the opponent.

How to Play Carrom Board Game step by step?

Here you can learn carrom game tricks and improve your game easily.

Carrom is a relatively simple board game. Learn how to play carrom game and learn carrom tricks easily in the following points. Also, you will learn carrom board rules so that you can avoid fouls and score carrom board points easily.

How to play carrom board game

Step 1: Arranging the pieces

The black and white pieces (carrom men) are arranged alternately in circles with the red queen at the center. The whites are lined up to form a “Y” shape and the two sides aim directly towards the corner pockets.

In an online game, the carrom men will be arranged by the computer

Step 2: Position of the players

Each player sits on 1 side of the board and can only strike from that side. The contestant playing white plays first or ‘breaks’. The color of your piece can be decided by the toss of a coin.

Step 3: Breaking

Breaking is the first shot of the carrom board game. The first player has to break the circle in the middle by taking the first shot with the striker.

  • If a player gets a piece in the pocket on the first shot, he will continue to take turns until he fails to pocket a piece.
  • The player must always return the striker to the rectangle before taking a new shot.

Step 4: How to shoot

This is very important as the carrom game depends on how well you shoot the striker. Your style of shooting determines how soon pieces are pocketed and you get points. Bad shooting can result in fouls which you will read in this article later.

Since you are playing online, you will drag and click to release the striker. Your prowess in the game will depend on your mouse movements and control.

While keeping the striker on the board to shoot, you must remember that it should touch both ‘base lines’, either covering the end circle completely or not touching it at all. The striker cannot touch the diagonal arrow line.

Step 5: Turns

You and your opponent take turns shooting the striker.

If you pocket a piece, you continue to play and shoot your striker again. You can continue to shoot your striker until you fail to pocket a piece.

Step 6: Covering the Queen

  • You can pocket and cover the Queen if you have already pocketed at least one piece of your color.
  • If you pocket the Queen before pocketing your color first, your turn continues. But you must sink one of your carrom men before covering the Queen. If you cannot pocket your color piece at the end of the turn then the Queen is returned to the center by the opponent. Now that you have learned the basic carrom game rules, let us move on to how to win the carrom game.
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How to Win the Carrom Board Game & its rules?

In carrom, players play rounds. Each round may have a different winner. The final game is won by the player having the highest points after adding up all the points from the rounds.

Playing a round

  • A round is played until one player has pocketed all of his or her carrom men.
  • The first player to pocket all their pieces wins the round, and then gets points. However, for a round to end the queen must be pocketed and covered by a player.
  • Complete the game
  • There is no fixed number of rounds to play in carrom. The scores have to be added up from each round.
  • Rounds are played until a player hits 29 points.
How to win carrom board game

Other Carrom Board Rules

There are a few other carrom game rules which you must remember

  • Pieces returned to the center can be placed on top of the other pieces which are there in the main circle.
  • If pieces come to rest standing on their edge or overlapping another piece, then they are left as they are. They are only moved again in the normal course of play.
  • If the striker comes to rest under another piece, you must slowly remove the striker in such a way so that there is very little disturbance to the covering piece.
  • If it is your first coin to pocket with the striker, the pocketed coin will be placed inside the board by your opponent and called a bounty. When you pocket your next coin, the balance will be immediately kept by your opponent. But you will be allowed to continue with your strike.
  • If a player pockets his and his opponent's last coin with a striker by a fair stroke, he will lose the board by one point if the queen is covered by him. An additional point will be awarded for the pocketed striker if demanded by the opponent.

Is Backward(underhand/Thumbing) shot allowed in carrom?

As per internationally accepted norms, you are allowed to hit in any direction from the carrom bed. If you want to hit backward in carrom, you can use your thumb to flick. Some rules also say not to hit backward, so if you have pieces of your own color between you and your carrom bed you must use a rebounding shot to move or pocket them. Many online games also allow hitting backward. But keep in mind that you should sit while hitting.

What if the last coin goes before Queen?

  • Pocketing the opponent's last coin and your coin when the red coin is on the board?

If a player places his last coin with the opponent's last coin when the queen is on the board, the opponent gets 3 points and can demand additional points if the strike is unfair.

  • pocket your last coin when the queen is on board?

If a player pockets their last coin when the red coin is on the board, they lose by 3 points if the score is less than 22. In the case of an unfair stroker, the opponent may demand an additional point.

  • What if Queen and cover(striker) goes together?

Even if the queen is covered, the opponent's piece is returned to the center in addition to the penalty piece. A player pockets the last piece before the queen is covered. In this case, both the pocketed piece and the penalty piece are returned to the centre.

  • What happens when only queen is left in carrom?

If you pocket your last coin with the proper stroke, but the queen is still on the board, you lose by 3 points (1 point if the opponent's score is 22 or higher). In case of an unfair stroke, the opponent may demand an additional point.

  • What if striker goes with last coin?

When you pocket your last coin with the striker but the queen is still on the carrom board you lose by 3 points [1 point if the opponent's score is 22 or higher]
In case of an unfair stroke, the opponent may ask for two additional points.

Can we hit red coin first?

You have to pocket at least one piece of the given color and then pocket the queen.

If a player pockets a queen in a break shot, that player must first pocket a specified coin and then pocket a second coin to cover the queen. If the player fails to pocket the first coin or the second coin as queen cover, the queen is returned to the center of the board.

Which finger is best for carrom?

The most commonly & best-used grip is the straight grip. If you are new to carrom it can be easy to maneuver. You keep the palm of your hand facing down and place your fingers very lightly on the carrom board. You will place your index finger just behind the piece and flick your finger to make your shot.

Fouls of Carrom Board Game

While playing carrom, if you are not careful, you might commit fouls which will incur a penalty. To avoid this, learn the fouls in carrom board rules.
After a foul, your turn comes ends immediately and a penalty is incurred. As a penalty, one of your pocketed pieces is returned to the board and placed by the opponent anywhere within the main circle. Your opponent will always position the carrom men in such a way so as to have an advantage.

A foul happens in the following situations:

  • Pocketing the Striker
  • If you pocket an opponent's piece
  • If a piece leaves the board
  • If your final piece has been pocketed before covering the Queen
  • You have incorrectly positioned the striker before taking a shot
  • If your arm crosses the diagonal line on the board
  • If you fail to break correctly on three attempts

If there are no pocketed pieces

  • If a penalty is incurred but there are no pocketed pieces to return, then the penalty is owed till a piece becomes available.
  • If a penalty is owed, and a piece is pocketed, then it is placed at the center by the opponent at the end of the turn. However, if the opponent forgets to do this before the start of the next turn then any owed penalties are lost.

Scoring In Carrom Board Game

In this section, you will learn all about the carrom points rules and how to score and win the carrom board game.

At each round

  • At the end of each round, to determine your score, count how many of your opponent pieces still remain on the board.

For example, your opponent has 4 pieces remaining on the board. Your score would be 4.

  • If you have pocketed and covered the queen during the game, then an additional 5 points are added to your score if your score is below 24.

For example, if you had 4 points based on your opponent's pieces, and you covered the queen, your score for the round is 9.

  • You will no longer get the additional 5 points for covering the queen once your total points reach 24

Keep adding up the points as you continue to win rounds.

At the end of the game

  • There is no fixed number of rounds in the carrom board game.
  • Scores from each round are added up.
  • When someone hit 29 points or higher the game ends and the highest scorer is the winner

For example, you score 11 points in the first round. In the next round, your opponent wins, scoring 9 points. In the third round, you score 13 points, giving you a score of 24. The fourth round is won by your opponent wins and scores 5 points which give him a total score of 14 points. In the fifth round, you score 8 points. You now have a score of 32 which exceeds the 29 points you need to win. Therefore, you have won this game of carrom. This completes the discussion of carrom points rules for playing carrom.

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