

An ideal position, which typically results in a win, allows a player to shuttle one piece back and forth between two mills, removing a piece every turn. Flying was introduced to compensate when the weaker side is one man away from losing the game.Īt the beginning of the game, it is more important to place pieces in versatile locations rather than to try to form mills immediately and make the mistake of concentrating one's pieces in one area of the board.
STRATEGY TO WIN NINE MENS MORRIS MANUAL
A 19th-century games manual calls this the "truly rustic mode of playing the game". Some rules sources say this is the way the game is played, some treat it as a variation, and some do not mention it at all. When a player is reduced to three pieces, there is no longer a limitation on that player of moving to only adjacent points: The player's men may "fly" (or "hop", or "jump" ) from any point to any vacant point. When one player has been reduced to three men, phase three begins. The act of removing an opponent's man is sometimes called "pounding" the opponent. A player can "break" a mill by moving one of his pieces out of an existing mill, then moving it back to form the same mill a second time (or any number of times), each time removing one of his opponent's men.

Players continue to try to form mills and remove their opponent's pieces as in phase one. Players continue to alternate moves, this time moving a man to an adjacent point. After all men have been placed, phase two begins. If a player is able to place three of their pieces on contiguous points in a straight line, vertically or horizontally, they have formed a mill and may remove one of their opponent's pieces from the board and the game, with the caveat that a piece in an opponent's mill can only be removed if no other pieces are available. The players determine who plays first, then take turns placing their men one per play on empty points. Left shift operator can be used to check if a bit is set.Nine men's morris starts on an empty board.
STRATEGY TO WIN NINE MENS MORRIS FREE


An isolated piece is a piece that is not a part of a mill. Mills: – During any phase, if a player gets three of his pieces on a single straight line on the board, then one of the opponent’s isolated pieces is removed from the board. Ending Phase – The last phase starts when one of the players has only three pieces remaining on the board.In this phase, each player moves his pieces along the lines on the board. Mid-game Phase – Phases 2 starts once both the players have finished placing all their pieces on the board.Opening Phase – In this phase, the two players alternately place their nine pieces on the board.A player who forms a mill (three pieces on a straight line) with his pieces is allowed to remove any one of the opponent’s pieces from the board. A player wins the game if he reduces the opponent to only 2 pieces or block the opponent from any further moves. The above board has 23 such intersections. The game is played between two players who take turns to place each of their nine pieces on the point of intersection of lines on the board. Here, I will be talking about one such variant whose game board looks like the one below. There are different variants of this game, each with a slightly different set of rules. Let’s see how Artificial Intelligence form the core of the Nine Men’s Morris Game.
