Learn Nine Men's Morris: Tutorial

The game begins with the placement phase. Players take turns placing one stone on any empty point.

All 18 stones (9 per player) are placed before any movement begins. Choose your positions carefully -- try to set up potential mills while blocking your opponent.

In this position, several stones have already been placed. White is about to place their next stone.

A mill is three of your stones in a row along a connected line.

Mills can be formed along the sides of any square (e.g., points 0-1-2 across the outer top) or along the cross-lines connecting the squares (e.g., points 1-4-7 down the top center).

In this position, White has stones at points a7 (0) and d7 (1). Placing a stone at g7 (2) would complete a mill across the outer top edge.

Forming a mill lets you remove one of your opponent's stones from the board.

When you form a mill, you must remove one of your opponent's stones from the board.

Rules for removal:

- You can remove any opponent stone that is not part of a mill.

- If all opponent stones are in mills, then you may remove any of them.

Removed stones are permanently out of the game. Reducing your opponent below 3 stones wins the game.

Here White has just completed a mill on the outer top edge (0-1-2). White must now remove one of Black's stones. The black stone at b6 (3) is not in a mill, so it can be removed.

Once all 18 stones have been placed, the game enters the movement phase.

On your turn, you slide one of your stones along a line to an adjacent empty point. You cannot jump over other stones or move to a non-adjacent point.

The goal is still to form mills. You can break a mill by moving a stone out, then reform it on a later turn to capture again. This "opening and closing" mills is a key strategy.

In this position, all stones are placed. White can slide the stone at d6 (4) to d5 (7) to form a mill on the inner top edge (6-7-8).

When a player is reduced to exactly 3 stones, they enter the flying phase.

A flying player can move a stone to any empty point on the board, not just adjacent ones. This gives the weaker player a fighting chance.

Flying makes it much easier to form mills, but with only 3 stones you must be very careful -- losing one more means defeat.

Here Black has only 3 stones left and can fly. The stone at g7 (2) could fly to d5 (7) to form a mill on the inner top edge.

The game ends when one player wins. There are two ways to win:

1. Reduce your opponent to fewer than 3 stones. Once a player has only 2 stones left (after the placement phase), they can no longer form mills and lose.

2. Block all of your opponent's stones so they have no legal move on their turn.

In this position, Black has been reduced to only 2 stones and White wins the game.