Nine men's morris

How to play Nine men's morris

Not from the book. The rules are the common European ones, as given in Bell's and Murray's accounts and on tradgames.org.uk; the board is the one cut into the Gokstad ship's gaming board, c. 900.

From the sources

• Three squares, one inside the other, joined by lines at the middle of each side: twenty-four points where the lines meet. Each player has nine men.
• First the men are placed: the players take turns setting one man on an empty point until all eighteen are down.
• Then the men move: one man a turn, along a line to the next empty point. No jumping.
• Three men of one colour in a straight line along one of the lines is a mill. Whoever closes a mill takes one of the opponent's men off the board — a man standing in a mill may be taken only when the opponent has no other.
• A mill may be opened and closed again, and takes a man every time it closes.
• When a player is down to three men, they may fly: move a man to any empty point.
• Whoever is left with two men, or cannot move, has lost.

My choices

• The flying rule is in; the sources call it either standard or a variant, and it keeps the end alive.
• Fifty moves after the placing without a man taken is a draw; the sources give no rule for it.
• White places first. The machine looks a few moves ahead: men first, then mills, then a line of two with its third point open.

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