Carrom

Carrom is a classic Indian tabletop game. Flick the heavy striker to knock your coins into the four corner pockets. The first player plays White from the bottom baseline; the opponent plays Black from the top.

Controls

• Place the striker: drag it sideways along your baseline (or use the slider / ← → keys). It must not overlap a coin.
• Aim and shoot: press anywhere on the board and drag backwards like a slingshot. The dotted line shows the direction and the first coin you will hit; the further you pull, the harder the shot. Release to shoot, or drag back to the start to cancel.

Rules

• Pocket one of your own coins and you shoot again.
• The red queen must be covered: pocket one of your coins on the same or the very next shot, otherwise she returns to the centre. A covered queen is worth 3 bonus points.
• Foul: pocketing the striker ends your turn and returns one of your pocketed coins to the centre (owed later if you have none).
• You cannot pocket your last coin while the queen is still in play — it comes back.
• The board ends when a player has pocketed all nine coins. The winner scores one point per opponent coin left, plus 3 for the queen. Play a single board or a match to 25.

Tips: aim at the point where the striker must touch the coin to send it towards the pocket (the ghost circle helps). Gentle shots keep the striker out of pockets.