Games

Nine men’s morris

Mill, one of the oldest board games: place your pieces, then move them along the lines; three in a row is a mill, and a mill takes one of the opponent’s pieces. Leave your opponent two pieces or no move and you win. Twelve men’s morris adds the diagonals. Play the computer at five levels, play a friend, or watch the computer play itself.

By Mykhailo Makarov

Actual application image

What happens

White begins. Each side first places its nine pieces, one at a time, on empty points; then the pieces move along the lines to a neighbouring empty point. Three pieces of one colour in a row along a line form a mill, and whoever closes a mill takes one of the opponent’s pieces – one that is not in a mill, unless every one is. A side reduced to three pieces may fly to any empty point (the rule can be switched off). A side left with two pieces, or with no move, loses; a position repeated three times, or fifty moves each without a mill, is a draw. Twelve men’s morris: twelve pieces each, the diagonals at the corners are lines too, and a full board is a draw. The computer searches with alpha-beta, iterative deepening and a transposition table, weighing pieces, mills, mills about to close, mobility and pieces shut in.

Try this

Click a point to place a piece; once all are placed, click a piece and then the point it goes to. After a mill click the opponent’s piece to take. Turn the table with the right mouse button, zoom with the wheel.

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