Player's Guide · 04

How to play a board

Carrom men start racked in the center circle, the Queen at their heart. Players alternate turns, flicking the striker from their own baseline.

Your objective

Pocket all of the carrom men in your color, and pocket-and-cover the Queen. A turn stays with you as long as you keep pocketing your own coins — miss, and it passes to your opponent.

Covering the Queen

You may pocket the Queen at any point, but you must cover her by pocketing one of your own coins on the very next stroke. Fail to cover, and the Queen is returned to the center for play to continue.

Fouls

  • Pocketing the striker itself is a foul — a coin is returned to the table and play passes on.
  • Pocketing an opponent's coin, or fouling with the Queen uncovered, returns coins to the center.

Winning the board

The moment a side clears its coins, the board resolves by these rules — order matters:

  1. Cleared, Queen secured. You've pocketed all your coins and already covered the Queen — you win the board.
  2. Cleared, Queen still in play. You've pocketed all your coins but the Queen is still on the table, unclaimed — the board goes to the other side.
  3. Queen with nothing of your own. Pocketing the Queen when you haven't pocketed a single one of your own coins is an instant loss.