How to play Nine Men’s Morris
Nine Men’s Morris is a game for two: Ivory and Onyx, nine stones each. These are the rules Morris Clash plays by, on the phone and on our server alike.
The board
Three squares, one inside the other, joined at the middle of their sides: 24 points where stones stand, and the lines between them. Two points are neighbours when a line joins them with no point between.
Four points have four neighbours: the middles of the middle square’s sides. Eight have three, and the twelve corners only two.
Placing
Ivory begins. In turn, each side sets one stone on any empty point, until all eighteen are down. A mill made while placing takes a stone like any other.
Mills
Three stones of the same colour next to each other on one line make a mill. Whoever makes one takes a stone of the other side off the board at once. A stone that is part of a mill cannot be taken, unless every stone of that side is. A taken stone does not come back.
Opening a mill by moving a stone out, then closing it again, makes a new mill. Two mills made by one move still take a single stone.
Moving
When both sides have placed all their stones, a turn is a move: one stone slides along a line to a neighbouring empty point. A side with no move on its turn loses.
Flying
A side down to three stones may move any of them to any empty point. The other side still moves along the lines until it, too, is down to three.
How a game ends
A side left with two stones loses, as it can no longer make a mill. So does a side that cannot move on its turn.
The game is drawn when the same position comes up three times, or after 30 moves each with no stone taken.
Online
In a duel each turn has a minute, and a side that runs out of time loses. Resigning ends the game at once; a game left before its tenth turn moves no rating.
Worth knowing
- A stone on a crossing of the middle square reaches four points; one in a corner reaches two. Early on, the crossings are worth more.
- A stone that can step out of one mill and into another closes a mill on every move. Building one is often how a game is won.
- Placing is half the game: a side that has placed its stones with nowhere to go can be walled in before a single stone is taken.
Coming free to the App Store and Google Play.