Nine Men’s Morris

Nine Men’s Morris is a two-player strategy game, also called mill or the mill game. Each player has nine pieces on a board of three nested squares with 24 points. You place your pieces, then slide them along the lines, and three in a row lets you take one of your opponent’s pieces. You can play the Nine Men’s Morris game online free in your browser against the computer or a friend on the same device, with no download or sign-up.

How to play

White moves first. The game has two phases, and a mill can be made in either one.

• Placing: players take turns putting one piece from their hand on any empty point.
• Moving: once both hands are empty, a turn is sliding one of your pieces along a line to a neighboring empty point. Tap or click a piece and its legal moves light up green, then tap one, or drag the piece there.
• Mills: three of your pieces in a row along one line form a mill. Your opponent’s pieces that you may remove get a red ring, and you tap one to take it off the board for good.
• Protected pieces: a piece that is part of a mill can’t be removed, unless every one of that player’s pieces is in a mill. Only one piece is removed per move, even if two mills form at once.
• Re-making a mill: moving a piece out of a mill and back in on a later turn makes the mill again, and you remove another piece.
• Flying: with the Flying option on, which is the default, a player down to 3 pieces may move any piece to any empty point.

You win when your opponent has only 2 pieces left, or when it is their turn in the moving phase and none of their pieces can move. The game is a draw if the same position comes up three times with the same player to move, or after 50 moves each in the moving phase without a mill.

Variants and modes

• Nine Men’s Morris: the standard game, 9 pieces each on the 24-point board.
• Three Men’s Morris: 3 pieces each on a 3×3 grid with both diagonals. The first player to make three in a row wins. Nothing is removed and there is no flying.
• Six Men’s Morris: 6 pieces each on a board of two squares with 16 points. Mills form only along the sides, and there is no flying.
• Twelve Men’s Morris: 12 pieces each on the 24-point board with four diagonal lines added, which also form mills. If the board fills up during placing, the game is a draw.
• Opponent: play the computer on Easy, Medium or Hard, as White or Black, or choose 2 Players to pass the device back and forth.

The computer looks ahead with a minimax search. Easy sometimes plays a random move, Medium looks three turns ahead, counting both players, and Hard searches as deep as it can in well under a second. Your wins, losses and draws are saved for each game and level, and an unfinished game can be continued later from the start screen.

Tips

• Don’t rush mills while placing. Spreading your pieces where lines cross keeps them free to move later. A player boxed in at the start of the moving phase can lose without ever being captured.
• Hold the middle square. The midpoints of the middle ring connect to four neighboring points each, more than any other point, so pieces there are hard to block.
• Block two-in-a-rows. When your opponent has two pieces on a line with the third point empty, cover it unless you can make a mill first.
• Build a running mill. A piece that can slide between two mills makes a mill every turn.

FAQ

Is this Nine Men’s Morris game free?

Yes. There is no account and nothing to install, on desktop, Chromebook, tablet or phone.

Can I take back a move?

Yes. Undo (or Z) takes back your last move, and against the computer its reply too. If you made a mill and haven’t picked a piece to remove yet, Undo cancels that move.

Why can’t I remove a certain piece?

It is part of a mill. Pieces in a mill are protected unless all of your opponent’s pieces are in mills. The pieces you are allowed to take are ringed in red.

How do I see the rules during a game?

Press Rules under the board for a summary of the rules and variants. The last move is marked with a yellow ring, a fresh mill with a green line and a removed piece with a red cross.

For more classic board games, try Checkers, another two-player game of capturing your opponent’s pieces, or Tic-Tac-Toe, the three-in-a-row game that is close to Three Men’s Morris.