Nine Men’s Morris is a game of strategy for two players and has been played all over the world for about three thousand years.   The game reached the height of its popularity in Medieval England where it was played by people at every social level.  Game boards were carved into wood, indeed boards have been found carved into cloister seats in several English cathedrals, chiseled into stone or outlined on the ground with a stick. 

The English settlers who came to America brought their English culture and traditions with them.  Games, such as Nine Men’s Morris, provided much needed diversion for them in their new homeland.  Try your hand at this centuries-old game.  The game board is provided, all you will need are the gaming pieces (small pebbles or dried beans work well).

Rules of the Game:

The object of the game is to get three gaming pieces in a row—either horizontally, vertically or diagonally—while preventing your opponent from doing the same.

·         Each player has nine gaming pieces of one color.

·         Decide who goes first, then take turns placing the gaming pieces, one at a time, on an intersection or point (these are the small circles on the game board).

·         Try to get three pieces in a row—a mill.

·         When a player gets a mill he or she is allowed to remove one of the opponent’s pieces (the piece removed cannot be part of a mill).

·         Keep playing in this manner until all the gaming pieces are placed on the board.

·         Each player continues to move his or her pieces around the board trying to make mills.

·         A piece can be moved in any direction as long as it follows a line to the next vacant intersection or circle.

·         Players may only move one piece at a time.  Jumping over a piece is not allowed.

·         Every time a player makes a mill, he or she takes the opponent’s piece off the board.  (This is called pounding).

·         A gaming piece from the opponent’s mill can be removed if no other pieces are available.

·         The game ends when one player has only two gaming pieces left on the board or when neither player can make a move. 

·         If neither player can make a move, the player with the most gaming pieces on the board is the winner.