Nine Men's Morris

Overview

Nine men's morris is a two-player strategy game played on a board of three concentric squares connected by lines at their midpoints, creating 24 points where pieces can sit. Each player has nine pieces, and the entire game revolves around forming a straight row of three pieces along any of the board's lines — a formation called a "mill" — which allows you to remove one of your opponent's pieces from play.

Boards resembling nine men's morris have been found carved into temple roofs in Egypt and stone benches across the Roman Empire, suggesting the game or a close relative of it is well over three thousand years old. Its simple geometry made it easy to scratch into almost any flat surface, which likely helped it travel and endure across so many centuries and cultures.

What You Need

You need a nine men's morris board, which shows three squares of different sizes, one inside the other, joined by four straight lines connecting the midpoint of each side, and 18 playing pieces split evenly into two colors, nine per player.

Setup

The board starts completely empty. Players do not set up pieces in advance; instead, all nine of each player's pieces begin off the board, to be placed one at a time during play. Players decide who moves first, typically by a coin flip or simple agreement.

How to Play

The game has two phases. In the placing phase, players alternate turns placing one piece at a time on any empty point on the board until all 18 pieces (nine per side) are on the board. Any time a player completes a mill — three of their own pieces in a straight line along one of the board's marked lines — they immediately remove one of the opponent's pieces from the board, with the common rule that pieces already part of a formed mill cannot be removed unless no other pieces are available. Once all pieces have been placed, the game moves into the moving phase, where players take turns sliding one piece at a time along a line to an adjacent empty point, again forming mills to capture opposing pieces whenever possible. A mill can also be "opened and closed" repeatedly by moving a piece out of a line and back in on a later turn, forming the same mill again for another capture.

How to Win

A player wins by reducing their opponent to only two pieces, since two pieces can no longer form a mill, or by trapping the opponent so they have no legal move on their turn. In many rule sets, once a player is down to just three pieces, that player is allowed to "fly," moving a piece to any empty point on the board rather than only an adjacent one, which keeps the endgame from becoming hopeless too quickly.

Tips

• Try to place pieces at intersections where several lines meet, since they offer more options.
• Watch for a 'double mill' setup, where moving one piece back and forth re-forms a mill repeatedly.
• Block your opponent's near-complete rows of two before they can add the third piece.
• Don't rush every placement into a mill attempt; sometimes a defensive point matters more.
• In the flying phase, look for moves that threaten two mills at once.

Common Mistakes

• Focusing only on your own mills while ignoring an opponent's nearly-completed row.
• Placing pieces along the edges only, missing stronger central intersections.
• Breaking a mill without a plan to immediately reform it.
• Forgetting that pieces already in a mill are usually protected from capture.

Variations

Six men's morris and twelve men's morris use smaller or larger boards with fewer or more pieces, changing the pace of the game noticeably. Some regional versions skip the initial placement phase entirely and start with all pieces already on the board in fixed positions. A "no-fly" variant removes the flying rule for players down to three pieces, making the endgame considerably harder to escape.

Frequently Asked Questions

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