Nine Men's Morris

How to play Nine Men's Morris?

Nine Stones has been played in Anatolia for centuries; It is a well-established mind game in which you corner your opponent with the strategy of arranging your pieces, shifting them and establishing a "mill". It is played in three nested squares and strengthens logical planning skills.

1. Each player has 9 tiles. You take turns placing stones in the empty spots.
2. If you form a row of 3 ("Mill") on a line with your own pieces, you remove one of your opponent's pieces from the board.
3. Once all 9 tiles are lined up, it's time to "move": you can only move your tiles to an empty neighboring spot.
4. The player who is down to 3 pieces can now move his piece by "flying" it to any empty spot.
5. You win if you reduce your opponent to 2 tiles or make them unable to move.

Nine Men's Morris strategy tips

• Instead of trying to establish a mill immediately during the stacking phase, keep the intersection points (points with 4 neighbors); It gives you room to move in the future.
• Build a "double mill": as you slide a stone back and forth it creates a new mill each time.
• If two of your opponent's pieces are on a line and the third point is empty, consider covering that point as a priority.
• Be careful not to get your pieces stuck: the player who has no moves left loses.

Nine Men's Morris history

Nine Stones is one of the world's oldest board games; Game boards engraved on stones have been found in buildings dating back to the Roman period. It has been played for generations under the name "Nine Men's Morris" in Europe and "Dokuz Taş" or "Değirmen" in Anatolia.

The game was fully analyzed by computer in the 1990s and was shown to end in a draw if both sides played perfectly. Yet among humans, every game is a new puzzle, thanks to the different strategies of the stacking and shifting phases.

Other names: Mill, Nine Men's Morris, mill, Dokuztaş, nine stone game