| Carrom is a family of table
games sharing a similarity in that their mechanics lie somewhere between billiards and shuffleboard.
Carrom is also the name of a games company in the United States which produces a specific variant of a Carrom board (as
well as NokHockey and other games).
Generally speaking, the variant of Carrom played on Carrom brand boards is called "American Carrom". For the remainder of this
article, this distinction will be used.
Origins
The origins of Carrom are uncertain. Western sources suggest that the game is of Indian origin while some Indian sources claim the game is of British origin. North Africa is also suggested as a potential region of origin.
Equipment
The game is played on a board of lacquered plywood roughly two feet square. The edges of the playing surface are bounded by
bumpers of wood. The object of the game is to strike a heavy disk called a "striker" such that it contacts lighter disks called
"carrommen" and propels them into one of four corner pockets. The carrommen come in two colors denoting the two players (or, in
doubles play, teams). Traditionally, these colors are white (or unfinished) and black. The breaker always plays white. An
additional carromman is colored red and called the "queen".
Rules
The aim of the game is to pot your nine carrommen before your opponent pots his. However before sinking your final carromman,
the queen must be pocketed and then "covered" by pocketing one of your carromman on the same or subsequent strike. Fouls, such as
crossing the diagonal lines on the board with any part of your body, or potting the striker, lead to carrommen being returned to
the board.
American Carrom
American Carrom is a variant on Carrom brought to America from the East by a missionary. Believing that the game required
restructuring for Western tastes, the missionary altered the game. Much of the game is the same, but the striker's weight is
reduced and the carrommen are smaller. Generally, instead of disks of solid wood, ivory, or acrylic, carommen (including the
striker) are rings of light plastic in the American variety. In addition, rather than using the fingers to strike the striker,
American Carrom uses short cue sticks. American Carrom boards also have pockets built into the corners to make pocketing easier.
Generally speaking American Carrom boards are printed with checkerboard and backgammon patterns and are sold with checkers, chess
pieces, skittles, etc to allow for some limited variant of many traditional games to be played on them. Often, these boards are
also built to play Crokinole. Generally speaking, the Carrom community considers
American Carrom to be an inferior version of the game.
External links
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