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Play now — it's freeNine Men's Morris — also called the mill game, merels or merrills — is the classic two-player strategy board game of medieval Europe, carved into cathedral cloisters and played for over two thousand years. The board has 24 points on three concentric squares joined by four lines; each player commands 9 men. Line up three of your men along a marked line — a mill — and you remove one enemy man from the board. A player reduced to three men may fly to any empty point. You win by leaving your opponent with two men or no legal move.
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→ Full Nine Men's Morris rules · Glossary
Two players face off on a board of 24 points — three concentric squares joined through the middle of each side, with no diagonal lines. Each commands 9 men, and the dark side opens. During the placing phase players alternate putting one man on any empty point; afterwards men slide along lines to adjacent empty points. Three of your men on one line form a mill and let you remove an enemy man. A player with only three men left may fly to any vacant point. You win when your opponent is down to two men or has no legal move.
Each stage changes what a turn looks like:
| Stage | What happens | When |
|---|---|---|
| Placing | Each player sets one man on an empty point | First 18 plies (9 each) |
| Moving | Slide one of your men along a line to an adjacent empty point | After all 18 men are placed |
| Flying | A player with exactly three men may move to any empty point | From three men onward |
Nine Men's Morris (the mill game, merels) is a two-player strategy board game played on 24 points with 9 men per player. Players win by forming mills — three in a row — and removing enemy men until the opponent has two left or no legal move.
Nine men per player, 18 in total. That is the key difference from the twelve-man variant (twelve men's morris), which gives each side twelve pieces and adds diagonal lines.
No. The Nine Men's Morris board has 16 mill lines — 8 horizontal and 8 vertical. Diagonal lines belong to the twelve-man variant, which has 20 lines on the same 24-point grid.
You remove one enemy man from the board. A man inside an enemy mill is protected while that player has any other man; if every enemy man stands in a mill, any man may be taken.
Yes. Moving a man out of a mill and back to re-form it earns a new capture each time — this shuttle is the classic winning technique. Every closure removes exactly one man.
A player with exactly three men may move to any empty point on the board, not just adjacent ones. Only the three-man side flies.
Reduce your opponent to two men, or leave them without a legal move on their turn. With perfect play from both sides the game is a theoretical draw, so decisive wins usually come from mill shuttles.
On this site the same position occurring three times, or 50 consecutive moves without a capture, is a draw; a 300-move safety limit also applies. These safeguards prevent endless shuffling.
Yes — play Nine Men's Morris online free at morris.yeeqia.com, straight in your browser with no download or sign-up required.
Yes, the site is mobile-first and runs in any modern browser on Android or iPhone, with a full English interface.