Nine Men’s Morris: rules and exercises
Reduce your opponent to two pieces, or leave them with no legal move. Played on 24 points joined by lines.
Line up three, take one. 24 points, nine pieces.
1. Learn the rules
The three phases
- 1 · Placing — each player places their 9 pieces, one per turn, on any empty point.
- 2 · Moving — once all are placed, each turn slides one piece to an adjacent point along a line.
- 3 · Flying — down to 3 pieces, you may move to ANY empty point on the board.
The mill
- A mill is three of your pieces in a row along one of the board lines.
- Closing a mill removes one enemy piece.
- You cannot remove a piece that is part of an enemy mill, unless ALL their pieces are in mills.
- A mill can be opened and closed again: it counts every time.
How the game ends
- You lose when down to 2 pieces.
- You lose if you have no legal move, however many pieces you hold.
The corner diagonals are NOT board lines: three pieces on a diagonal are not a mill.
2. Recognize the objective
Count the points where you can close a mill and the captures that would end the game. A double threat can force your opponent to defend one line and leave another open.
3. Put it into practice
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