General Rules
1. Players: Carrom is played between two players (singles) or four players (doubles, two teams of two).
2. Board and Pieces: A standard carrom board is used. There are 19 pieces: 9 white, 9 black, and 1 red (queen).
3. Striker Placement: The striker must be placed within the baseline circle and cannot cross the diagonal lines.
GameObjective
1. Winning: The objective is to pocket all your assigned pieces (either white or black) and the queen before the opponent.
2. Queen: The queen must be pocketed, followed by a "cover" (pocketing one of your assigned pieces) in the same or next turn. If the queen is not covered, it is returned to the center of the board.
Turn Rules
1. First Turn: Decided by a toss or by breaking (striking the striker to determine first play).
2. Legal Shot: The striker must touch your own pieces first. Pocketing the opponent's piece results in a foul.
3. Queen Pocketing: If the queen is pocketed without covering, it returns to the center. If a player pockets the queen and fails to win the game, the opponent gets 3 points for the queen.
Fouls
1. Common Fouls:
Pocketing the striker.
Pocketing an opponent’s piece.
Not striking your piece first.
Crossing the baseline during a shot.
2. Penalty:
For a foul, 1 of your pieces is returned to the board near the center.
Other Rules
1. Time Limit: Players usually have 10-15 seconds for each turn in tournaments.
2. Decider: If both players have the same points after the last game, a tie-breaker game or sudden death is played.