NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Three Men's Morris

Three Men's Morris is played on a three-line by three-line board, and is a game of position. Figures 1 and 2 indicate the two types of board this game is played on.

The game is thought to be a direct ancestor of tic-tac-toe. It is also related to Six Men's Morris and Nine Men's Morris. 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 Mens Morris is a board game popular during the Middle Ages in England, France and Italy. ... Nine Mens Morris is a two-player strategy board game with a long history in Europe. ...

Rules

The game is played with two sets of three or four pieces (one set for each player), with each set having its own colour.

Each player takes it in turn to place pieces on intersection points, the first person to place three along a line wins the game. Once all pieces are placed (assuming there is no winner by then), play proceeds with each player moving one of their own pieces per turn. A piece may be moved one line segment per turn.

History

The earliest known board for this game is one similar to the one shown in figure 2, which was found on the roof of the temple in Kurna, Egypt dating back to 1400 BC.

The earliest known mention in literature is in Ovid's Ars Amatoria. Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC â€“ Tomis, now Constanta AD 17) Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, 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. ...

It is thought that the Chinese played this game under the name Luk tsut K'i during the time of Confucius (circa 500 BC). To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Centuries: 7th century BC - 6th century BC - 5th century BC Decades: 550s BC - 540s BC - 530s BC - 520s BC - 510s BC - 500s BC - 490s BC - 480s BC - 470s BC - 460s BC - 450s BC Events and Trends 509 BC - Foundation of the Roman Republic 508 BC - Office of pontifex maximus created...

Boards for Three Men's Morris dating back to 13th Century can be found carved into the cloister seats at the cathedrals at Canterbury, Gloucester, Norwich, Salisbury and Westminster Abbey. (12th century - 13th century - 14th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. ... A cathedral is a Christian church building, specifically of a denomination with an episcopal hierarchy, such as the Anglican, Catholic and some Lutheran churches, which serves as the central church of a diocese, and thus as a bishops seat. ... St Peters St, Canterbury, from the West Gate, 1993 Canterbury (Latin: Duroverum) is a cathedral city in the county of Kent in southeast England. ... Gloucester (pronounced ) is a city and district in south-west England, close to the Welsh border. ... This article is about the English city. ... Salisbury Cathedral by Constable. ... The Abbeys western faÃ§ade The Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster, which is almost always referred to as Westminster Abbey, is a mainly Gothic church, on the scale of a cathedral (and indeed often considered one), in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. ...

The name of the game may be related to Morris dances (and hence to Moorish). It may also be derived from medieval Latin merellus (coin, piece, or game using pieces). A Morris dance is a form of folk dance. ... 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. ...

Alternative names

Sometimes, the names of the games Tic-tac-toe (where players keep adding "pieces") and Three Men's Morris (where pieces start to move after a certain number have been placed) are confused. 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. ...

Contents

Rules

History

Alternative names

See also

Bibliography