Since its advent in the 18th century, people have known carrom to conquer the hearts of gamers. Its sheer popularity rests on the fact that it can keep people of all age groups incessantly occupied. The version of the game played now dates back to the gaming style that was played 200 years ago. Ever since its adaptation from a street-style version by the Indian Maharajas to an indoor tabletop game and finally an evolved virtual version today, it has gained widespread acknowledgment all over the globe.
The game conventionally is played on a polished wooden board with a striker made up of plastic and wooden pawn pucks. The board has 4 pockets, with the game’s main objective being pocketing all the carrom men in the pockets until the point the board is clear. The game owes its long evolution to simply its popularity. Its survival through the decades has enabled the game to manifest on the internet with the advancement of technology. With the appearance of the web and ascent of social gaming, carrom games are accessible online too.
You can decide to play against the PC or play against different players. The games available online are a good way of passing the time at home, playing with friends for entertainment purposes, or playing a competitive game against other players. You can download the carrom game to carry the game in your pocket and play it whenever.
Carrom game variants
The following are six fascinating variants to spice up the basic game of carrom and provide supreme fun. Have a look at these exciting playing techniques:
-
Professional Carrom
The ICF or International Carrom Federation forms the rules of the professional carrom games. The rules are applicable for the international and national Carrom championships. According to the rules, the carrom game consists of twenty-nine points, and each player is assigned a specific color of disks. Players have to pocket the disks of their given color, and they cannot deviate from this rule. The players cannot pocket the queen before they have pocketed their first disk and after pocketing the last disk. As per the traditional rules of the game, professional carrom players must cover the queen, or it doesn’t count. Also, players cannot pocket the queen and the cover in the same pocket.
The player must pocket all the disks and the queen before the other players win the game.
-
Family Point Carrom
The most widely played variant, the simple point carrom, can be played with an odd number of players. It is one of the most popular methods of playing carrom amongst the South Asian nations. The objective holds the same as the classic version of the game: pocketing the carrom men in either of the 4 pockets. The game requires the players to pocket any of the carrom men regardless of the color at random. Once you pocket the queen, its cover needs to be pocketed. Else it leads to the returning of the queen.
The family point carrom had originated as a family game, and therefore, the first version of the game is related to how the family plays the game at home. The game’s primary objective is to spend some quality time with the family.
-
The Point Carrom
The point carrom is intensively played in Eastern Asia. It is played similarly to the family point game with a minute variation in the value of the carrom men. The back carrom men carry 1 point, the white 2 points, and the queen 3 points. To win, a player requires to muster 21 points. If none of the players can score 21 focuses, then the winner is the player with the most elevated focuses. In any case, if the score is tied, the players need to play a sudden death round, where the players whose score is tied select a shading and pocket carrom men of a substitute tone.
-
Total-point Carrom
It is the conventional gaming method with 10 points assigned to each white pluck pawn, 5 points to black carrom men, and 50 points assigned to the queen. The queen needs to be won with a cover, which could be any of the pluck pawns.
In the beginning, all the pluck pawns are to be piled one upon the other at the center of the board, with the queen placed at the center. Each player, turn by turn, is to strike the carrom men until all of the carrom men are pocketed. The player with the maximum number of carrom men and the highest score amounting is the winner. Players can play this game in multiple rounds as per the players’ wishes. The game is strategically played with rules, especially maintaining the foul system where the players would be paid the penalty upon violating the rules. Players can also play the game with only an even number of players, ideally 2 or 4.
-
Duboo
The main contrasts in this kind of variation are that the board is generally more significant than the standard size of the carrom board, and the players slide the striker as opposed to flicking it to hit the pucks.
-
Tokyu-Ban
A pure Japanese version of the game fondly called Tokyu-Ban was introduced in the early 20th-century. It is also known as the ‘fight ball board’ in English.
So, these are the six types of carrom games that you can play to pass your time. You are guaranteed to have a pleasurable time.
Read More: Battlefield 2042 Hit Registration
