90s kids probably remember those days when summer vacations would provide you with a reason to spend the entire day with friends playing board games. Going to your friend’s houses chilling in a world where mobile phones were still a luxury. Playing games like monopoly, cards, carrom, and whatnot. Speaking of carrom who all remembers saying the phases like ‘covering the queen chip’? This basically means to knock the extra chip from the carrom board to secure the winning queen chip.
Carrom originated in South Asia, India during the mid of 18th century. Carrom was not called carrom originally. Its original name has not been confirmed yet as it was in their regional language. This game also has Portuguese roots. This game is loved in Asian countries like Nepal, India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Carrom is surely an ancient game, but it has developed and manages to share a space in the modern world as well. There is no ancient handbook for carrom. It is more of a game by play than a game by words. Currently, the playing criteria and rules for carrom have been proposed by IFC to make it suitable for national or international games.
Basics rules and features of carrom
Carrom has exciting gameplay. Once you sit on either of the four corners of the carrom board, there is no going back. You will be hooked to the game. If you have seen your friend or family play carrom and wish to play as good as them? You are that the right place! We have explained the basics of carrom below for you to learn:
The game
Carrom is a board game. The board is called a carrom board. There are four net holes available, one on each corner of the board. Every player needs to knock every carrom piece in the net to gain more scores. You will use a striker to hit these carrom chips. These chips are popularly known as carrom men.
Team size
Carrom is played by single players or doubles. The maximum size of the team cannot exceed two. The doubles team can only have two men or two women teams and cannot be mixed (this is the rule for international or national matches). The primary motive is to gain more carrom men than the opponent team, including the queen.
Preparation for the game
Before you start the game, the board needs to be set up. A special powder is used to reduce the friction on the board so that the chips move smoothly. Before you start playing, you need to arrange the carrom men. The queen needs to be placed in the middle and all the other carrom men should surround her in a circle. The carrom men come in two colours, white and black.
Importance of the queen
The queen is the most important asset of this game. To win the game, you need to pocket the queen. However, this is not a simple task. To permanently gain the queen, you need to pocket her along with a cover. This means that you need to strike the queen in the net and in the immediate next move you also need to strike one of the random carrom men. If you fail to do that, you lose the queen.
Scoring
The black carrom coins carry 10 points. The white ones are worth 12 points and the red queen is worth 20 points. This game has no specific number of rounds. Usually, the game is played for 29 points. Whoever hits 29 points or higher wins the game.
How to play?
Playing carrom is very simple. You simply need to learn to strike appropriately to gain an advantage. If you know how to hit the coins in your desired directions, then you are already a skilful player. Some rules are concerned about your hand position. Your arm cannot be outside the diagonal lines present on both sides of your side. The toss winning player starts the game. They get to strike first. The players consecutively use the striker to hit the coins in their favour. The more coins you acquire the more points you score. Make sure you pocket the queen and its cover to get an edge over other players. Once you master basic carrom, you can give into learning some trick shots so that you can easily pocket the carrom men.
These days you can relive the fun of playing carrom virtually too! Carrom is a trendy online game.