How to play
Nine Men’s Morris, called Dokuz Taş in Turkey, is played on three nested squares joined at the middle of each side. That makes 24 points and 16 straight lines of three: four sides on each square plus the four short spokes that cross between them. There are no diagonals on this board. Each side has nine pieces, white moves first, and you are white.
The game runs in three stages, and each player passes through them separately.
Placing. Players take turns putting one piece from their hand on any empty point. Eighteen pieces go onto 24 points, so the board never fills up.
Sliding. Once your hand is empty, every turn you move one of your pieces along a line to the next point, and that point must be empty. Pieces can’t jump over each other.
Flying. When you are down to exactly three pieces, the line rule no longer applies to you: any of your pieces may land on any empty point. Your opponent keeps sliding until they too drop to three.
Mills and captures. Three of your pieces on one line form a mill. Each time you complete a mill, whether by placing or by moving, you take one of your opponent’s pieces off the board, for good. A piece that sits in one of their mills is protected. The only exception: if every enemy piece is in a mill, you may take any of them. Opening a mill and closing it again on a later turn counts as a new mill.
End of the game. You lose when you have fewer than three pieces left (on the board plus still in hand), or when it’s your turn and none of your pieces can move. If 50 moves go by on each side with no capture, the game is a draw.
Controls on this board
Tap an empty point to place a piece. In the sliding stage, tap your piece and then the point it should go to. After a mill, the message bar says “Mill!” and the pieces you’re allowed to take light up; tap one. The status line counts each side’s pieces, including those still in hand.
Across the top you’ll find New game, Undo and Hint, then the Opponent choice. Against the Computer, pick Easy, Medium or Hard. Friend puts two people on one screen, white against black, and hides the difficulty buttons. Undo against the computer takes back your move and its reply together; against a friend it takes back a single move. Hint flashes a suggested move for whoever is to play. Your game, opponent and difficulty are saved between visits.
Strategy
The opening is about placement, not capture. Grab a mill with your first few pieces and you may end up with three pieces stuck in a corner. Spread out instead.
The four junctions on the middle square are the best points. Each one touches four neighbours, two on the middle square and one on each spoke, so a piece there is hard to trap and can step toward either of its lines. The corners of every square, by contrast, only have two neighbours, and the side midpoints of the outer and inner squares have three.
Count lines, not pieces. When your opponent has two on a line and the third point is empty, block it now. When you have two such lines threatened at once, they can only block one.
Build a running mill. The strongest shape in the game is two mills that share an empty point next to one piece. Slide out and the first mill opens while the second one closes; slide back next turn and the first closes again. Every turn you capture.
Use blockade as a weapon. Taking pieces is not the only way to win. In the sliding stage, a side whose pieces are all hemmed in loses on the spot, even with nine on the board. Late in the placing stage, aim pieces at the empty points next to your opponent’s clusters.
Rethink the endgame at three pieces. A side with three pieces flies, so it can block from anywhere, but it also needs only one mill from you to lose. Against a flier, set up two threats at once. If you are the one flying, don’t open your own mill to chase a capture unless it wins outright.
For a smaller warm-up with three pieces each and no captures, try Three Men’s Morris. The same board with diagonal lines and twelve pieces each is Twelve Men’s Morris.
