Nine Men's Morris
A game of Nine Men's Morris. Even if it's black's turn, white can win by moving from e3 to d3 and back again, removing a black piece each time a row of three is formed.
Players	2
Age range	Any
Setup time	< 1 minute
Playing time	< 1 hour
Random chance	None
Skills required	Strategy
BoardGameGeek entry

Nine Men's Morris is an abstract strategy board game for two players that emerged from the Roman Empire.^[1] The game is also known as Nine Man Morris, Mill, Mills, Merels, Merelles, and Merrills in English. It is called Mühle and Mühlespiel in German, Mérelles and Jeu de Moulin in French, Mulino in Italian, Trilha and Moínho in Portuguese, Moara in Romanian, Naukhadi in west India.^[2] Image File history File links Nine_Men's_Morris_board_with_coordinates. ... A strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal, most often winning. Strategy is differentiated from tactics or immediate actions with resources at hand by its nature of being extensively premeditated, and often practically rehearsed. ... A board game is any game played with a premarked surface, with counters or pieces that are moved across the board. ... For other uses, see Roman Empire (disambiguation). ... A map of West India. ...

The number of legal positions in Nine Men's Morris is estimated to be 10¹⁰, while the total number of possible games is approximately 10⁵⁰. In October 1993, Ralph Gasser solved the game, showing that it ends in a draw with perfect play.^[3] Gasser also developed an AI player called Bushy which is regarded as the world's strongest player. Year 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar). ... A two-player game can be solved on several levels. ... In game theory, perfect play is the behavior or strategy of a player which leads to the best possible outcome for that player, and if there are multiple options with the same outcome perfect play is usually considered the fastest method for getting a good result, or the slowest time... Garry Kasparov playing against Deep Blue, the first machine to win a chess game against a reigning world champion. ...

Rules of play

Each player has nine pieces, or "men", which move among the board's twenty-four intersections. As in checkers, the object of the game is to leave the opposing player with no pieces or no legal moves. “Checkers” redirects here. ...

Placing the pieces

The board at the beginning of the game, before any pieces have been placed.

The game begins with an empty board. Players take turns placing their pieces on empty intersections. If a player is able to form a row of three pieces along one of the board's lines, he has a "mill" and may remove one of his opponent's pieces from the board; removed pieces may not be placed again. Players must remove any other pieces first before removing a piece from a formed mill. Once all eighteen pieces have been placed, players take turns moving. Image File history File links Nine_Men's_Morris_board. ... Image File history File links Nine_Men's_Morris_board. ...

Moving the pieces

To move, a player slides one of his pieces along a board line to an empty adjacent intersection. If he cannot do so, he has lost the game.

As in the placement stage, a player who aligns three of his pieces on a board line has a mill and may remove one of his opponent's pieces, avoiding the removal of pieces in mills if at all possible.

Any player reduced to two pieces is unable to remove any more opposing pieces and thus loses the game.

Flying

In one common variation, once a player is reduced to three pieces, his pieces may "fly", "hop"^[4][5] or "jump"^[6] to any empty intersections, not only adjacent ones. Some sources of the rules say this is the way the game is played,^[5][6] some treat it as a variation,^[4][7][8][9] and some don't mention it at all.^[10] A '19th Century Games Manual' calls this the "truly rustic mode of playing the game".^[4]

Strategy

At the beginning of the game, it is more important to place pieces in versatile locations than to try to form mills immediately and make the mistake of concentrating one's pieces in one area of the board.^[11]

An ideal position, which typically results in a win, is to be able to shuttle one piece back and forth between two mills, removing a piece every turn. For example, in the diagram above, white can win the game even if black moves first.

Variants

Three Men's Morris Three Men's Morris is played on a three-by-three board with just three pieces per player. Flying is allowed.[12] Diagonal lines are sometimes added to the board, reminiscent of tic-tac-toe. Image File history File links Three_Men's_Morris_board. ... Tic-tac-toe, also called noughts and crosses and many other names, is a paper and pencil game between two players, O and X, who alternate in marking the spaces in a 3×3 board. ...

Six Men's Morris Six Men's Morris gives each player six pieces and is played without the outer square found on the board of Nine Men's Morris. Flying is not allowed.[12] It "was popular in Italy, France and England during the Middle Ages but was obsolete by 1600."[12] This board is also used for Five Men's Morris. Seven Men's Morris uses this board with a cross in the center. Image File history File links Three_Men's_Morris_variant_board. ... Image File history File links Six_Men's_Morris. ...

Twelve Men's Morris Twelve Men's Morris adds four diagonal lines to the board and gives each player twelve pieces. This means the board can be filled in the placement stage; if this happens the game is a draw. This board is also used for Eleven Men's Morris. Image File history File links Twelve_Men's_Morris_board. ...

History

A 13th century illustration in Libro de los juegos of the game being played with dice.

According to R. C. Bell, the earliest known board for the game includes diagonal lines and was "cut into the roofing slabs of the temple at Kurna in Egypt" c. 1400 BCE.^[12] However, Friedrich Berger writes that some of the diagrams at Qurna include Coptic crosses, making it "doubtful" that the diagrams date to 1400 BCE. Berger concludes, "certainly they cannot be dated."^[1] Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (898x638, 349 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Nine Mens Morris Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (898x638, 349 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Nine Mens Morris Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner... The Libro de los Juegos, (Book of games), or Libro de ajedrez, dados y tablas, (Book of chess, dice and tables) was commissioned by Alfonso X, king of León and Castile, during the 13th century between 1251 and 1283 AD. It consists of 98 pages, with 150 color illustrations. ... Kurna, Qurna or Qurnah is a town in middle Egypt, on the west bank of the Nile, in the Theban necropolis. ... Jesus Christ in a Coptic icon. ...

One of the earliest mentions of the game may be in Ovid's Ars Amatoria.^[12][1] In book III (c. 8 CE), after discussing Latrones, a popular board game, Ovid wrote: For other uses, see Ovid (disambiguation) Publius Ovidius Naso (March 20, 43 BC – 17 AD) was a Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid who wrote on topics of love, abandoned women and mythological transformations. ... The Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love) is a series of three books by the Roman poet Ovid. ... Lūdus lātrunculōrum, lātrunculī, or simply lātrōnēs (the game of brigands, from lātrunculus, diminutive of lātrō, mercenary or highwayman) is a game played by the ancient Romans. ...

There is another game divided into as many parts as there are months in the year. A table has three pieces on either side; the winner must get all the pieces in a straight line. It is a bad thing for a woman not to know how to play, for love often comes into being during play.

Berger believes the game was "probably well known by the Romans", as there are many boards on Roman buildings, even though dating them is impossible because the buildings "have been easily accessible" since they were built. It is possible that the Romans were introduced to the game via trade routes, but this cannot be proven.^[1]

The game peaked in popularity in medieval England.^[4] Boards have been found carved into the cloister seats at the English cathedrals at Canterbury, Gloucester, Norwich, Salisbury and Westminster Abbey.^[12] These boards used holes, not lines, to represent the nine spaces on the board — hence the name "nine holes" — and forming a diagonal row did not win the game.^[13] Another board is carved into the base of a pillar in Chester Cathedral in Chester.^[14] England is the largest and most populous of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom (the United Kingdom is a nation which was created by the bonding of the four succsessor states). ... Cloister of Saint Trophimus, in Arles, France A cloister (from latin claustrum) is a part of cathedral, monastic and abbey architecture. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Canterbury is a cathedral city in east Kent in South East England and is the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Primate of All England, head of the Church of England and of the worldwide Anglican Communion. ... Gloucester (pronounced ) is a city and district in the English county of Gloucestershire, close to the Welsh border. ... This article is about the English city. ... Salisbury Cathedral by Constable. ... The Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster, which is almost always referred to by its original name of Westminster Abbey, is a mainly Gothic church, on the scale of a cathedral (and indeed often mistaken for one), in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. ... Chester Cathedral is a Church of England cathedral, mother church for the Diocese of Chester, north-west England. ... , For the larger local government district, see Chester (district). ...

In Shakespeare's 16th century work A Midsummer Night's Dream, Titania laments that it is no longer played: "The nine men's morris is filled up with mud" (A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, Scene I). Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ... For other uses, see A Midsummer Nights Dream (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Titania (disambiguation). ...

Some authors say the game's origin is uncertain.^[4] It has been speculated that its name may be related to Morris dances, and hence to Moorish, but according to Daniel King, "the word 'morris' has nothing to do with the old English dance of the same name. It comes from the Latin word merellus, which means a counter or gaming piece."^[10] King also notes that the game was popular among Roman soldiers. Cotswold morris with handkerchiefs A morris dance is a form of English folk dance usually accompanied with music. ... For the terrain type see Moor Moors is used in this article to describe the medieval Muslim inhabitants of al-Andalus and the Maghreb, whose culture is often called Moorish. For other meanings look at Moors (Meaning) or Blackamoors. ...

In some European countries, the design of the board was given special significe as a symbol of protection from evil,^[1] and "to the ancient Celts, the Morris Square was sacred: at the center lay the holy Mill or Cauldron, a symbol of regeneration; and emanating out from it, the four cardinal directions, the four elements and the four winds."^[4]

Trivia

• The World Merrills Association ran the World Championships annually at the Ryedale Folk Museum in Hutton-le-Hole, North Yorkshire, England. ^[15]

Shops in Hutton-le-Hole Centre of Hutton-le-Hole Hutton-le-Hole and Hutton Beck (the stream) in February 2005 Hutton-le-Hole is a very small village in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England, about seven miles north west of Pickering. ... North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county, located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county in that region and also partly in North East England. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ...

Related games

• Achi, from Ghana, is played on a Three Men's Morris board with diagonals. Each player has four pieces, which can only move to adjacent spaces.^[16]
• Kensington is a similar game in which two players take turns placing pieces and try to arrange them in certain ways.
• Luk Tsut K'i ("Six Man Chess") in Canton and Tapatan in the Philippines are equivalent to Three Men's Morris played on a board with diagonals.^[17]
• Morabaraba, equivalent to Twelve Men's Morris, has been played for thousands of years across Africa.^[18] However, rather than men, the counters are called "cows." It is still played competitively internationally in competitions run by the International Wargames Federation.
• Shax is played on the board of Nine Men's Morris, but with somewhat different rules and with twelve pieces per player instead of nine.
• Tic-tac-toe uses a three-by-three board, on which players place pieces (or make marks) in turn until one player wins by forming an orthogonal or diagonal line or until the board is full and the game is drawn.

Achi is a Mayan language very closely related to Quiché (Kiche). It is spoken primarily in the department of Baja Verapaz in Guatemala Categories: | | | ... Kensington is a board game devised by Brian Taylor and Peter Forbes in 1979, named after an affluent borough of London. ... Guangdong, often spelt as Kwangtung, is a province on the south coast of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Morabaraba is a traditional African two-player abstract strategy board game. ... The board used for Shax. ... Tic-tac-toe, also called noughts and crosses and many other names, is a paper and pencil game between two players, O and X, who alternate in marking the spaces in a 3×3 board. ... In mathematics, orthogonal is synonymous with perpendicular when used as a simple adjective that is not part of any longer phrase with a standard definition. ...

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Berger, Friedrich (2004). "From circle and square to the image of the world: a possible interpretation for some petroglyphs of merels boards" (PDF). Rock Art Research 21 (1): pp. 11–25. Retrieved on 2007-01-12. 
2. ^ Gupta, Rohit. "Modi meaningless in rebuilt Kutch", Mid-Day, Mid-Day Multimedia Ltd., 2002-11-30. Retrieved on 2006-12-31. 
3. ^ Gasser, Ralph (1996). "Solving Nine Men's Morris" (PDF). Computational Intelligence 12: 24-41. 
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Mohr, Merilyn Simonds (1997). The New Games Treasury. Houghton Mifflin, pp. 30–32. ISBN 1-57630-058-7. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Wood, Clement; Gloria Goddard (1940). The Complete Book of Games. Garden City, New York: Garden City Books, pp. 342–343. 
6. ^ ^{a b} Foster, R. F. (1946). Foster's Complete Hoyle: An Encyclopedia of Games. J. B. Lippincott Company, pp. 568–569. 
7. ^ Ainslie, Tom (2003). Ainslie's Complete Hoyle. Barnes & Noble Books, pp. 404–406. ISBN 0-7607-4159-X. 
8. ^ Morehead, Albert H.; Richard L. Frey, Geoffrey Mott-Smith (1956). The New Complete Hoyle. Garden City, New York: Garden City Books, pp. 647–649. 
9. ^ Grunfeld, Frederic V. (1975). Games of the World. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, pp. 59–61. ISBN 0-03-015261-5. 
10. ^ ^{a b} King, Daniel (2003). Games. Kingfisher plc, pp. 10–11. ISBN 0-7534-0816-3. 
11. ^ Vedar, Erwin A.; Wei Tu, Elmer Lee. Nine Men's Morris. GamesCrafters. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
12. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Bell, R. C. (1979). Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations, volume 1. New York City: Dover Publications, pp. 90–92. ISBN 0-486-23855-5. 
13. ^ Nine Holes. Row Games. Elliott Avedon Museum & Archive of Games (2005-09-12). Retrieved on 2007-01-09.
14. ^ Hickey, Julia (2005). The Hidden Treasures of Chester Cathedral. TimeTravel-Britain.com. Retrieved on 2007-01-13.
15. ^ Drogin, Marc (November 1988). "Merrills, Anyone?". Christian Science Monitor: pp. 16–17. 
16. ^ Bell, R. C. (1979). Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations, volume 2. New York City: Dover Publications, pp. 55–56. ISBN 0-486-23855-5. 
17. ^ Culin, Stewart (October–December 1900). "Philippine Games" (PDF). American Anthropologist, New Series 2 (4): pp. 643–656. Retrieved on 2007-01-09. 
18. ^ Russouw, Sheree. "Getting morabaraba back on board", Johannesburg News Agency, 2002-09-20. Retrieved on 2006-12-31. 

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External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Morris games

• Merrills research from Kansas
• Ice Age cave excavation reveals what may be Nine Man Morris board from Roman age in Britain
• Six Men's Morris at BoardGameGeek
• Three Men's Morris at BoardGameGeek

Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... Screenshot of the BoardGameGeek entry for Settlers of Catan. ... Screenshot of the BoardGameGeek entry for Settlers of Catan. ...

Software

• Nine Men's Morris applet — Allows flying and plays at 7 difficulty levels
• 6 Men's Morris for Windows — Allows flying and plays perfectly