Twelve Men's Morris

Alternate Names

Jirig (Mongolia), Sam K’i (Three Chess, China), Kon-tjil (Korea), Dig Dig (Malaysia), Shah and Shax (Somalia), Yakaimado (Madera City, California-Shoshonian Stock, Mono Indians), Eleven Men's Morris (when playing with eleven counters per player), Eleven-penny Madell (Wiltshire, England), Nerenchi (Sri Lanka)

No. of Players

Two

Equipment

A triple mill with diagonals board and twelve each of black and white counters are required for play.

History

This game's nearly worldwide distribution indicates that it is probably indeed very ancient. Boards of this style are known from archaeological sites in many places of the Old World, but are especially common from Northern Europe Nordic, Germanic and Celtic cultures.

Objective

The objective is to reduce your opponent’s counters from twelve to two or to immobilize your opponent’s counters so that they are unable to make a legal move.

Play

Each player commences the game with twelve counters of one color in-hand. Alternate turns entail the placement of a single counter of your color at any vacant position on the board or the movement of a single counter of your color along a line to an adjacent vacant position. There is no jumping. During placement and movement of the counters, players attempt to make horizontal or vertical rows of three counters of their color along any line. Such a formation is here called a “mill”. Diagonal rows of three counters may be formed in this game but are not mills. Upon forming a mill of their own counters, a player is entitled to capture any one of their opponent’s counters on the board, so long as that captured counter is not itself part of a mill. Any mill that has been formed by a player may be broken by that player to be reformed later, capturing another counter.

The player placing the first counter is given considerable advantage in this game and to be fair the game should be played twice or any even number of times with the first move alternating between players.

Strategy

First, a good defense: if your opponent forms a mill, you should try and block the counters of that mill from moving in and out of the mill and taking one of your counters every time.

Notice the three sequentially smaller squares that make up the playing board. While placing counters, try to place two at opposite corners of any empty square. This will guarantee at least one mill to be formed for you. On the next move place a counter at an empty corner on the same square. The potential is now there for two mills to be made and your opponent can only block one of them. Conversely, watch out for this trap to be created by your opponent.

Try to create a vacant node next to a mill you have formed. This will allow you to move a counter in and out of that mill, easily capturing an opponent’s counter every time. Even better, is a devastating formation that enables a player to alternate the same counter between two mills, making a nearly unstoppable series of captures. This formation is so noticeably devastating that German players of old even coined a term for it—Zwickmühle. Conversely, try to stop your opponent from making such a structure. Another dangerous structure is the Krossmylna or Running Jenny, where a player forms a cross of four counters, enclosing a central vacant position. With this formation, one is able to move any counter in and out of a mill.

Variations

This game may also be played with eleven counters per player, thus one British name: Eleven-Penny Madell. Jirig from Mongoli also utilizes this board with only eleven counters.

Many descriptions of this game’s rules do not allow movement of the counters until all have been placed on the board. Sam K’i from China is one such variation. Stewart Culin describes Sam K’i in his Korean Games with Notes on the Corresponding Games of China and Japan with some additional, but incomplete, rules stating:

"When a player gets three pieces in a line he marks one of his opponent's men as dead by putting one of his own men on top of it. When all the twenty-four points on the board are occupied, the dead pieces are removed and the players move in turn, one space at a time."

It is not clear if the "dead" piece can still utilized to create mills for its owner then, and, if not, the question is then why to leave it on the board at all. The question also arises, can a killing piece on top of another then be "killed" itself? How high can they be stacked? Also, as counters may be placed on top of one another it implies that each player has more than twelve counters so that the twenty-four points on the board can become occupied before the game progresses to the movement phase.

Also, a "flying" rule is often incorporated which allows a player whose counters have been reduced to four in number to move (fly), on his turn, a single friendly counter to any vacant node on the board, even if it is not connected to his current position. (In Nine Men’s Morris, this optional rule is utilized when a player’s counters number three instead of four). This, of course, makes a come-back from even a devastatng loss much more likely.

The game of Nerenchi is played by girls and women in Sri Lanka. It is the same as Twelve Men’s Morris other than the additional rule which states that a player who makes a row of three during the initial placing stage takes an additional turn and may do so for each row made. The movement stage begins when twenty-two counters are placed on the board. One player may have twelve counters on the board while the other may have ten, but the movement phase begins and no more counters may be placed on the board.

Shax (also known as Shah, Jar, Djelga or Mororova) from Somalia is a centuries-old Twelve Men's Morris variation played on the Triple Mill board (without diagonals). It is usually played by marking a board on the ground and using stones or sticks as counters. Shax has had a significant influence on Somali literature and proverbs, which often mention gameplay and strategy. In the historical nomadic lifestyle of the Somali people, Shax was also utilized as a means of communication between different clans. It is still popular today and has leagues of professional players in the cities of Somalia. Like the Chinese Sam K'i version, no movement is allowed until all counters have been placed upon the board. A key difference from all other games of this kind is that no counters are removed or killed in the initial placement phase. Mills in this game are called jare, meaning "cut". During the placement phase, it is only noted who created the first jare of their own counters.

After all twenty-four counters have been placed and all positions on the board are completely full, the movement phase begins. The player who created the first jare has the first move. If no jare was formed during placement, the player who went second has the first move. In the first move of the movement phase, the player removes any one of his opponent's counters off of the board. A counter in a mill is not protected and may be the one removed at any point in the game. The second player then does the same, removing one of his opponent's counters. This frees up two spaces for the actual movement to begin.

Blocking the opponent from any legal moves does not constitute a win in Shax. Instead, if a player is blocked and it is their turn, their opponent is required to move one of their counters to an open intersection, thereby opening up a place for the blocked player to move to. If the blocking player's move forms a mill, they are not entitled to remove one of the blocked player's counters. The "flying" rule is never incorporated into Shax. When a player loses all of their pieces (or, presumably, all but two) the game is over and their opponent is the winner.

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