You probably will feel that just like Kabaddi or Kho Kho, the Carrom Boardgame is just another game played in the Indian Sub Continent but it is not like that. The game of carrom is spread all over South East Asia and there are some of the international championships too being played. So once you read this article, you will be able to answer most of the queries regarding carrom.
Table of Contents
What is Carrom?
Carrom is a board game that is somewhat similar to billiards or snooker but it is not played by balls and sticks. It is very much popular in most of the South East Asian countries like
- India
- Nepal
- Pakistan
- Bangladesh
- Sri Lanka
- Japan
- Malaysia
- Indonesia.
There are carrom cafes in these countries and they regularly organize carrom competitions.
Apart from Asian countries, carrom board game gain popularity in Europe and North America too.
Countries like Italy, UK, France, Germany, Greece, Spain, Switzerland, etc. also formed their carrom federations. Even Australia and the United States have picked up the like of Carrom and is growing rapidly amongst the citizens.
A Complete Information About Carrom Game:
History
In the year 1988, the International Carrom Federation or ICF was founded in the city of Chennai in India. The formal rules for the game were published in the same year. After formal rules were established the Indian Diaspora spread the game in Europe and in the US and Canada also.
How to Play Carrom?
The carrom is played on plastic or (mostly) wooden carrom boards of different sizes. The objective is to push the lightweight wooden discs which are called the ‘carrom men’ into the four different pockets on the four corners of the carrom board with the help of a striker, which is made of plastic. The carrom men are in three different colors, Black, White, and Pink.
Total 9 black and 9 white are fixed in such a way that it makes a circle in the middle of the board and in the very center, the pink carrom man called the Queen is put. As per ICF-approved measurement, the Carrom men should between 3.02 – 3.18 cm in diameter. The Queen can be won only if it is covered by another carrom man in consecutive shots. To make the carrom board surface smooth, boric acid powder is often used in India.
Different Types of Carrom:
Family Point Carrom
The game of Carrom originated as a family game, hence the first variant is obviously related to how people play the game of Carrom at their homes. The main objective of this variant is to enjoy and spend some quality time with the family. Here there is no stoppage on which color disks you need to pocket, for each black disk pocketed the player gets 5 points, 10 for the white, and queen earns 25 points for the player provided if it is covered. The highest number of point winners ultimately wins the carom board game. This game can be played individually or also in pairs as well.
Point Carrom
This is quite similar to the family point carrom but over here both the black and white disks will earn you 1 point each, whereas after covering the queen it will earn you 3 points. The player who reaches the 25 points mark is declared the winner and if there is no clear winner then the highest number of point winners will be declared as the winner. In case of a tie, a tiebreaker is played where players are allowed to choose two different numbers of disks and they need to pocket them only on rebounds.
Total Point Carrom
In this variant which is very much popular in India and Pakistan, two players play individually and turn by turn. The black disks get you 5 points and whites will worth 10 points. 50 points will be earned if the queen has been properly covered. The players keep on playing carrom till all the Carrom men are pocketed by the lowest scorer player after the first round.
Professional Carrom
These carrom board rules are formed by the ICF and for the national and international Carrom championships, these carrom rules are used. As per these rules, every Carrom game consists of 29 points. Each player is assigned with a color of disks and they have to pocket the assigned color disks only. The players can’t pocket the queen before the first disk is pocketed and after the last disk is pocketed. As per normal rules over here too the queen must be duly covered. The queen and its cover can’t be pocketed in the same pocket. The first person who pockets all of his designated color disks is declared the winner.
