Instructions for Carrom

Board Setup

• Place all the carrommen pieces (some versions may use rings) in the center ring, starting by placing the red Queen piece in the very center. Next, encircle the Queen with alternating white and black pieces, which will take three of each; as a reference point, place a white piece at the bottom of the Queen. Create one more similar circle around the first one from the 12 remaining pieces, making sure a white piece lines up with each of the three whites in the inner circle. What you should have at the end is a setup where a Y is formed by white pieces with the Queen in the center.

  On the board, the center circle is surrounded by a square made of two sets of baselines, and diagonal lines should divide the board into four quadrants. Once you choose a side of the board to sit, your body (with the possible exception of your hand) must stay within your diagonal boundaries while shooting the striker piece. The striker must also touch both baselines when positioned to shoot, you must remain seated, and you must flick the striker and not push it.

Sinking Pieces

• Once both players choose who is black and who is white and where they will sit, one person shoots the striker to break the circle of pieces; a coin flip often determines who goes first. From then, you must use the striker to shoot at your own pieces and sink them into one of the four holes at each of the far corners. Your turn continues as long as you keep sinking pieces. You also must try and sink the Queen, but it must be done in between sinking your first and last piece. Once you sink one of your own pieces, you can sink the Queen at any time; however, you must immediately sink one more of your pieces after sinking the Queen to "cover" it; if you don't, the Queen goes back to the center of the board. Also, should you sink the striker, you lose the turn and one of your own pieces goes back on the board. A single game concludes after the Queen is covered and one player sinks all his pieces.

Scoring

• At the conclusion of the game, the player who sunk all pieces gets a point for each of the opponent's pieces that are still on the board plus three points for covering the queen. You only get points for the queen if you covered it and sunk all your pieces (meaning you should likely go for the Queen when you only have one piece left or at least have a good advantage over your opponent). Play then continues with a fresh game and goes on until one player scores 25 points. If eight games are played with neither player reaching that total, the one with the most points wins.