You play white. Slide the striker along your baseline, drag it back like a slingshot and release!
Carrom is one of the most popular indoor games in India, played in homes, clubs and neighborhoods across the country. This free online Carrom Board recreates the game with realistic physics: a wooden board, nine white coins, nine black coins, a red queen and a striker that you flick toward the coins to pocket them in the four corner holes. You play the white coins against a computer opponent who plays black. There is nothing to download, and the whole game fits on a phone screen with simple drag-and-release controls.
At the start of your turn the striker sits on the baseline at the bottom of the board. Tap or drag anywhere along the baseline to slide the striker left or right to the position you want. Then press the striker and drag backwards, like pulling back a slingshot: a dotted line shows the direction of your shot, and the farther you pull, the more power you have. Release to flick the striker. The striker hits the coins, and any coin that falls into a pocket is counted. The computer then takes its turn from the top baseline.
Your goal is to pocket all nine white coins before the computer pockets all nine black ones. If you pocket one of your own white coins, you keep your turn and can shoot again. If you pocket a black coin by accident, it counts toward the computer's total and your turn ends. The red queen is worth three bonus points to whoever pockets it and also gives another turn. If your striker falls into a pocket, it is a foul: your turn ends and one of your pocketed coins is returned to the center of the board as a penalty. Your points are saved as your best score in your browser.
The easiest shots are the ones where your striker, the coin and the pocket are in a nearly straight line. Place the striker so that you hit the coin on the side facing away from the pocket, a skill known as aiming at the ghost position behind the coin. Use light power for close shots, because a fast striker can bounce off the wall and into a pocket by mistake. Break the central cluster early, since open coins near the edges are much easier to pocket than a tight group. When you cannot see a safe pocket, play a defensive shot that leaves the computer with no easy target. Use rebounds off the wall to reach coins that are hidden behind others, and learn how the angle of the wall bounce mirrors the angle of the shot.
The computer looks for the coin and the pocket that give it the straightest and most open shot, chooses a striker position on its baseline and then shoots with a small random error. Each time you start a new game after the first, the computer's aim improves a little, so the challenge grows as you do.
The drag-to-aim control works with a finger or a mouse, and the board scales to fit any screen. The game uses real collision physics with friction, wall bounces and realistic coin-to-coin collisions, and everything runs smoothly in your browser with no installation needed.