Carrom

Carrom is the much-loved tabletop game of flicks and pockets, played on a square wooden board with a hole in each corner. Nine white coins, nine black coins and one red queen start packed in a rosette in the middle, and you knock them into the pockets with a heavier disc called the striker. Play the computer at three levels, or pass one phone between two players: the board turns so the shooter always sits at the bottom.

How to play

• Place the striker anywhere along your base line, the pair of lines nearest you. Drag it, or drag the slider under the board.
• Pull back from the striker to aim, like a slingshot. The dotted line shows where it goes and where the first coin it touches will travel. The further you pull, the harder the shot. Let go to shoot.
• You can also flick the striker forwards with a quick swipe, or use the keyboard: arrow keys to slide and aim, W and S for power, Space to shoot.
• You don't have to start on the striker: press anywhere on the board and pull back. That gives you more room for a full-power shot, handy with the phone held sideways.
• New to carrom? Start against Easy. After a win the game offers the next level up, and after two losses in a row an easier one.
• Shots must go forwards. To reach a coin behind your base line, bounce the striker off a cushion.

Classic rules

Each player owns a colour, and white breaks. Pocket one of your own coins and you shoot again. The queen can be pocketed by either player, but she must be covered: pocket one of your own coins on the same shot or the next, or she goes back to the centre. Coins of the other colour always count for their owner. If the striker falls into a pocket it is a foul: any of your coins from that shot come back, one coin you had pocketed returns as a penalty, and the turn passes. With no coin to give back, the penalty is owed and paid with the next coin of yours that drops, even one your opponent sinks for you. You cannot sink your last coin while the queen is still in play: it comes back (a house rule here; club rules add a penalty). Clear all your coins with the queen covered to win the board, scoring one point for every coin your opponent still has left, plus three if you covered the queen. Play a single board or a match to 13 or 25 points.

Freestyle

A relaxed points game for everyone. Any coin you pocket scores for you: white 20, black 10 and the queen 50 once she is covered by any coin. Keep shooting while you score. The player with the most points when the board is clear wins.

Tips

• To cut a coin into a pocket, aim the striker at the point just behind the coin, on the far side from the pocket. Thin cuts need far more power than straight shots.
• The striker is heavier than the coins. Hit a coin dead straight and the striker keeps rolling after it, so ease off near a pocket or you may follow it in.
• Cushion rebounds lose some speed and come off a little steeper than they went in. Use them for coins hiding behind your base line.
• Stuck for a shot? Tap the long aim button to see the full path of the striker and the coin it hits.