Carrom Board Instructions

Gather the carrom men discs for the board. There are 19 discs in all: nine white, nine black, and one red disc known as the "Queen."

Arrange the discs in the center of the board. The "Queen" is placed in the center, while two white discs extend from three sides of the queen to form a "Y." Each of the three spaces between the points of the "Y" is filled with a row of three black discs. The last three white discs are placed on the edges of the arrangement, each one touching the grouping of black discs. (See References for an image of the disc arrangement.)

Sit down on one side of the board while your opponent sits opposite you. Shooting takes place from your respective sides of the board.

Flip a coin to determine who plays as white and who plays as black. The player who chooses white goes first.

Place your striker on the board. The striker must touch both of the horizontal base lines on your side of the board. You can cover the circle at either end of the base lines completely or not at all, but the striker should not touch the diagonal lines of the board.

Flick the striker at the center collection of discs. You can use any finger to flick the striker as long as no other part of your body touches the piece.

Knock your colored discs into the pockets on each corner of the board. Take another turn if you land one of the discs in a pocket.

Alternate turns until one player knocks all of his discs into the pockets.

Hit the Queen into a pocket before your last disc. For the Queen to be counted toward your score, it must not be the last piece you knock into a pocket.

Award the winning player one point for each of his opponent's discs left on the board and three points if he successfully pocketed the Queen. Start a new round and continue playing until one player reaches a score of 25.