Two players, a board of three squares inside each other with 24 points in total, and 9 pieces each. Get three of your pieces onto one line and you have a mill — and immediately take one of your opponent’s pieces off the board.
You can play on your own against the computer (at three strengths) or with someone from the arcade. A game takes six to twelve minutes.
Three squares sit inside each other. In the middle of every side a short line runs from one square to the next — four such spokes in all. Wherever lines meet there is a point: 24 of them.
⚠️ No line runs inwards from a corner. From the outer bottom-left corner you can only carry on along the outer edge, never straight into the middle square. The four points with the most neighbours are the side midpoints of the middle square — four each, which makes them the most valuable on the board.
Your pieces are brass buttons, your opponent’s are pewter. The board is inlaid into an old oak table top, the lines are pale maple veins.
At the start the board is empty. You take turns placing one piece each onto a free point until all 18 are down.
Above the board you can see what each side still holds: nine hollows per side. A shiny button means “still in hand”, an empty hollow means “on the board”, and a dull button means “taken”. One glance tells you how many pieces each side has left at all.
You can already close a mill during this phase — and then take one of your opponent’s pieces straight away.
Once all pieces are placed you move: one of your pieces along a line onto an adjacent free point. Not across corners, not straight over the board, not several steps at once.
Tap a piece and every point it may go to lights up. If it cannot move at all, the game says so and shows you which pieces can.
Three of your pieces on one straight line make a mill. The moment you close it you take one of your opponent’s pieces off the board. The line briefly lights up.
⚠️ A mill only counts when you have just closed it. A mill that was already standing and simply stays there gives you nothing.
⭐ But you may open a mill and close it again on your next move — and take another piece. Two mills sharing one piece are a running mill: you open one and close the other in turn and take a piece on every move. Whoever builds one usually wins.
When you close a mill you may choose one of your opponent’s pieces. But not any of them:
So that you never have to guess, the board shows it: the pieces you can take get a red ring, the protected ones are dimmed, and underneath it says why.
⚠️ Even if one move closes two mills at once: you still take only one piece.
Down to 3 pieces you may fly: move one of your pieces to any free point at all, however far away.
That is the underdog’s last chance — and a real one: a player who may fly closes mills faster than the leader would like. Which also means, if you are ahead: do not let them get down to three while you still have to stop their mills.
⚠️ “Fewer than three pieces” only applies once there is nothing left to place. Someone on their third placing move has two pieces on the board and has obviously not lost.
This is where the game turns from placing into thinking: jamming your opponent is sometimes stronger than taking pieces.
Everyone must move on their turn. Whoever has no move left has lost. So it can pay off to take away your opponent’s free points rather than hunting their pieces — especially in the second phase, when the board is full.
And the same thought the other way round: an opponent who can barely move will eventually have to open one of their own mills — and then everything is open to you. Anyone who only counts pieces misses that.
So that a game does not run forever, it ends in a draw when:
⚠️ A win on the board always comes first: whoever has no move left at that moment has lost — even if the draw counter was full.
Always the same steps:
The tap areas are larger than the drawn points: you will hit them with a thumb. Tapping another one of your pieces switches the selection, tapping empty space clears it. On a computer the Esc key does the same. A slip never costs you your move.
The last move played stays on the board as a copper trail — so even after a break you can see straight away what just happened.
| Level | What it does |
|---|---|
| Easy | looks three half-moves ahead and plays every fourth move more or less anywhere |
| Medium | looks five half-moves ahead and never misses a mill |
| Hard | calculates for about half a second, as deep as it gets in that time |
The computer does not only count pieces: it also weighs open pairs (two of its pieces with the third point still free), closed mills, its own mobility and the four valuable crossing points — and it weighs all of that differently during the placing phase. Do not underestimate “Medium”.
Games against the computer are practice: they are counted and shown in your record, but they earn neither points nor milestones.
What counts are games against other players. The Duel Corner is built for playing together — the computer is there for when nobody else is around.
Your points 🏆 come from duel games: 10 for a win, 4 for a draw, 1 for taking part. They count towards the arcade leaderboards (week, month, year).
Your level ⭐ is the number of milestones you have reached, plus one. There are five, and they are the same as in the other games of the Duel Corner: your first game against another player, your first win against another player, playing against 3 different people, 5 wins and 25 wins against other players.
Practice against the computer does not count towards points or milestones. It is not lost, though: your record keeps it separately — including the most mills you ever closed in a single game.
Results are saved: wins, losses, draws, your streaks and your settings. This happens at the end of every game.
A solo game in progress is not saved. If you close the page mid-game, you start fresh next time.
⚠️ A duel is different: there the position lives on the server. You can close the page and carry on from another device — as long as your move clock is still running.
Nine Men’s Morris runs entirely on your device: the computer calculates in your browser, nothing goes over the network for it. Once you have opened the game online, you can start it again without a connection — on a train, on a plane, in a basement.
Your results are then stored on the device and sent automatically as soon as you are back online. The lobby naturally needs a connection.
Above the board there are two buttons: on your own and two players. Tap two players and you open a table straight away — the page does not change.
While the table is open nothing is set up: the board stays empty, the hollows too, and above it you can read how many seats are taken. The game only starts once both of you are there. A seat nobody is sitting on says “🪑 free” — the computer never sits down by itself.
Everything else — the table code, invitations, being called back to the table, the move clock, the chat and the scoring — works exactly as in every other game of the Duel Corner. It is described in detail in the 🎯 Duel Corner guide.