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Nine Men’s Morris
Nine Men’s Morris is an ancient mill game dating at least from Roman times. It is the most prominent of all the mill games, played all around the world, but particularly in central European countries. Other variations of the game — such as Shax or Morabaraba — are also played in several African countries.
In addition to being a game, the board itself was used as some kind of talisman or symbol; The Merels Board Enigma (330) collects nearly a thousand examples of inscribed mill boards from around the world. Many of these are in vertical positions on walls where they could not possibly have been used for games, and their purpose is at the moment not well understood.
A large-format Nine Men’s Morris game being played at a festival in Hungary.
Play
© George Pollard🅭🅯🄏🄎
Nine Men’s Morris is played on the large mill board.
The game (as most mill games) is split into two phases. During the first (placement) phase, the players take turns placing a single piece at a time onto one of the vacant points on the board. Once all the pieces have been placed, the movement phase begins. In this part of the game, players take turns moving a single piece along a line to another vacant point. Once a player is reduced to three pieces, their pieces can ‘fly’ and move to any empty point on the board.
Throughout the game, each time a player forms a mill they remove any piece of their opponent’s that is not part of a mill. If all their opponent’s pieces are in mills, no piece may be removed.
During the movement phase, it is possible to form two mills simultaneously. In this case the player may remove two of the opponent’s pieces from the board.
A player loses the game when they are reduced to fewer than three pieces, or if they are unable to make a valid move on their turn.
When played on a board with diagonals, mills are not usually permitted to be made on the diagonal lines. However, this varies according to location and time.
History
© 2014 George Pollard🅭🅯🄏🄎
A Nine Men’s Morris board of unknown age in the Roman Agora, Athens.
© 2012 Dan Diffendale🅭🅯🄏🄎
A board carved on the capital of the Athenian trophy (or tropaion, τρόπαιον) from Marathon, which was constructed some time after 490 BCE but destroyed at a later date. An image of the board carved on the decapitated capital in situ can be seen in Vanderpool (1966, plate 32).
The game dates from at least the late Roman Empire or Byzantine period, and at the moment we do not have solid evidence for an earlier date.Ulrich Schädler, ‘Games, Greek and Roman’ (2013), 3. Earlier dates have often been proposed based upon the existence of boards carved on ancient monuments such as the RamesseumWalter Crist, Anne-Elizabeth Dunn-Vaturi, and Alex de Voogt, Ancient Egyptians at Play (2016), 144. and the Mortuary Temple of Seti I at Qurna,Henry Parker, Ancient Ceylon (1909), 644. but these are not able to be dated definitively—the monument only provides an earliest possible date.This is also discussed at length in Schädler (2021).
The game became popular throughout Europe: a double-sided game board with a Nine Men’s Morris layout on one side was found as part of the Gokstad Viking ship burial (c. 900) which was discovered in Norway.N. Nicolaysen, The Viking-Ship from Gokstad (1882), 44, 99. Another boat burial (the “Årby boat”) from around the same time also included a Morris game.Mark A. Hall, ‘Board Games in Boat Burials: Play in the Performance of Migration and Viking Age Mortuary Practice’ (2016), 441.
Sketch and photograph of the board from the Gokstad ship.
One of the earliest written references to the game is in the 10th century Kitāb al-Aghānī (كتاب الأغاني, ‘book of songs’), a large collection of poems and stories assembled by ʾAbū l-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī (أبو الفرج الأصفهاني, 897–967). One story describes a club from the time of the poet al-Aḥwaṣ (الأحوص, 660–724), along with the board games it held for the use of its members. According to the book, they could play shiṭranj (شطرنج, chess), nard (نرد), or — most importantly here — qirq (قرق, morris).Franz Rosenthal, ‘Gambling in Islam’ (2015), 481. The derivation of the name qirq (قِرْقٌ) is uncertain,It may also be related to the Geʽez word ቀርቂስ (Augusti Dillmann, Lexicon Linguae Aethiopicae (1862), 424–5) (qarqis), referring to various games, (Wolf Leslau, Comparative Dictionary of Geʽez (1987), 443) or the (Ottoman) Turkish قرق/kırk ‘forty (=many)’ (Nassif Mallouf, Dictionnaire Turc-Français (1867), 989). but it is apparently not originally an Arabic word.H. J. R. Murray, A History of Board-Games Other Than Chess (1951), 37. The Imam ʾAbū al-Qāsim al-Rāfiʿī al-Qazwīnī (أبو القاسم الرافعي القزويني, 1160–1226) would later describe qirq as the “chess of the Maghrebis”. (Rosenthal, ‘Gambling in Islam’, 381) Similarly, Shax is sometimes referred to as “Somali chess”.
Later, Faīrūzābādī (of whom, more below) would identify qirq with suddar (سُدَّر), apparently derived from the Persian se darre (سِهْدَرَهْ), meaning ‘three valleys’.Thomas Hyde, De Ludis Orientalibus Libri Duo [Two Books On Oriental Games] (1694), 207–9. However, in other dictionaries suddar is identified with other games such as aṭ-ṭabanu (الطَّبَنُ), which is known as a different game today (modern name aṭ-ṭāb الطاب).Ikram Hawramani, ‘Arabic–English Lexicon by Edward William Lane (d. 1876): طبن’ (2021). It is probable that in the past, names of games were more fluid, and often referred to families of games. Even in modern Arabic the name ʾidrīs (ادريس) is used to refer to mill games, but also refers to loosely related games such as Quantik. With that said, a Persian origin for the game does seem likely, given the number of ways that suddar is rendered in Arabic dictionaries.Other versions of the name are given as سِهْ بَرَهٌ (sih barahun), سِيدَرَهِ (sīdarahi), سِدْرَه (sidrah), سَذْ مَرَهْ (saḏ marah), or سِدْ مَزْه (sid mazh) (ibid.).
From the Arabic-speaking world the game entered Spain, where al-qirq became alquerque, which has remained the Spanish name for this family of games until the present day.
In France the game was in the past called marelles (from which we get the English ‘merels’), probably deriving from a word meaning “small stone” or “token”.The marelles name currently refers to hopscotch, due to the stones tossed upon the diagram.
Text of the French Templar rule from an early 14th-century manuscript edition (with quoted passage highlighted).
In the early 12th century, the game was mentioned in the French Rule of the Templar order (probably written between 1139 and 1147 CEJ. M. Upton–Ward, The Rule of the Templars (1992), 12.), as the only board game allowed to be played by Templar brothers. It is possible that the order picked up the game through their contact with the Arabic-speaking world:Indeed, a board has been found inscribed upon a stone in Château Pèrelin, a fortress constructed by the Templars in what is now Israel — although it could have been placed there any time since the fortress was built (C. N. Johns, ‘Excavations at Pilgrims’ Castle, ʿAtlit (1932–3); Stables at the South-West of the Suburb’ (1936), 60).
Henri De Curzon, La Règle Du Temple (1886), 185.Upton–Ward, Rule of the Templars, 90.Et sachies que a nul autre jeu frere dou Temple ne doit joer, fors qu’a marelles as queles chascun puet juer se il veaut por desduit sans metre gajeures. As eschas ni a tables nul frere dou Temple ne doit juer, ne as eschaçons.
And let it be known that a brother of the Temple should play no other game except marelles, which each may play if he wishes, for pleasure without placing wagers. No brother should play chess, backgammon, or eschaçons [an unknown game].
It is unclear why mill games were permitted by the Templars, but, reading the rest of the passage (not quoted above), the intent of the Rule seems to be to prevent playing games for money — bets were allowed to be placed on games, but only with worthless items such as wooden tent pegs. Viewed in this light, perhaps mill games were considered less susceptible to gambling, and therefore permissible.
In 1283 it appeared in the Castilian king Alfonso X’s Libro de los Juegos (Book of Games), where in addition to the standard game, rules for playing with dice are given (see below).
From Alfonso’s Book of Games.
The first problem in one of the Bonus Socius manuscripts written in Picardy (MS Latin 10286). The different shapes of the pieces in the diagram are used to identify particular pieces in the accompanying text.
In the same century the Bonus Socius series of manuscripts contained problems for the game, alongside other problems for chess and various table games.H. J. R. Murray, A History of Chess (2012), 619. Chess historian H. J. R. Murray describes the problems as being of very high quality, and that in fact “they leave a more favourable impression of the ingenuity of the mediaeval composer than is the case with the problems of chess or tables.”Ibid., 703.
A 13th-century English manuscript (MS O.2.45) from Cerne Abbey shows a Nine Men’s Morris board alongside an Alquerque board and another unidentified board (possibly Daldøs).
By examining depictions of the game in artwork, we can understand the attitude towards the game at the time the image was produced. In the manuscript image below (c. 1340), nobles of opposite sex face each other across a game board. Evidently the game was considered worthy of being played by the nobility, and suitable for men and women to play together:
© 2015 Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford SC=2464🅭🅯🄏
A woman and a man playing Nine Men’s Morris together, miniature from a copy of the Romance of Alexander (produced 1338–44).
The previous scene is in stark contrast to this German woodcut by Hans Weiditz from Trostspiegel in Glück und Unglück (24) — a version of Petrarch’s De remediis utriusquefortunae published some 200 years later in 1572. In this image we can see Chess being played by nobles and Backgammon by ordinary men, but Nine Men’s Morris is evidently only suitable to be played by monkeys:
The board with diagonals seems to appear first in Arabic sources;Murray, History of Board-Games Other Than Chess, 43. it is shown — as the only drawing — in the famous al-Qamūs al-Muḥīṭ dictionary (القاموس المحيط, ‘The Surrounding Ocean’) of Fairūzābādī (فیروزآبادی, 1329–1414), published at the start of the 15th century.محمد بن يعقوب فيروزآبادى, القاموس المحيط [The Surrounding Ocean] (1414).
In China the game is mentioned by the Ming Dynasty author Xiè Zhàozhè (谢肇淛, 1567–1624 CE) in his Five Assorted Offerings (五杂组),Song Wu and Pauline Sebillaud, ‘Research on the merels game in medieval China’ (2020). and game-boards (almost entirely of the ‘diagonals’ type) have been found in China, starting from boards dated to the 8–9th centuries in the Uighur Khaganate in what is now Mongolia, to the Balhae kingdom in the 9–10th centuries, and eventually spreading throughout the rest of China through the Liao/Song, then Jin and Yuan dynasties (10–14th centuries). It seems probable that the game reached China through the Silk Roads from the Middle East.Ibid.
The entry for “القَرْقُ” in the Qamūs. The game is here identified with suddar.
In later English history the game developed an association with rusticity, often mentioned as a game played by shepherds. In such guise it famously appears — albeit relocated in time and place to a fictional ancient Athens — in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (c. 1595), where, thanks to a feud between Titania and Oberon (queen and king of the fairies), the natural state of the countryside is upended, and:
The ox hath therefore stretch’d his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attain’d a beard.
The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrion flock;
The nine men’s morris is filled up with mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green
For lack of tread are undistinguishable.
The game can be seen in English history through its appearance in visitation records; one instance from the parish of Bitteswell records that in 1634 a certain Robert Lord the Younger was “admonished and dismissed” for “plaieing at nine men’s morrice in the Churchyard on Sundaie”.‘The Metropolitical Visitation of Archdeacon Laud’ (1907), 497.
© The Mary Rose Museumused with permission
A Nine Men’s Morris board alongside what seems to be a Daldøs board, on a barrel-end from the wreck of the English warship ‘Mary Rose’ (1545).
Detail from the 16th-century tapestry Suite des Nobles Pastorales.
In colonial America, the game began to be played with twelve pieces (exclusively on the board with diagonals) and thus became the standard American form, known as Twelve Men’s Morris.Rules for a game called alquerque de doze, sometimes translated as Twelve Men’s Morris, are given in Alfonso X’s Book of Games, but it describes a game of a different form.
Nomenclature
Other English names for the game have included:
Blind Men’s Morris (LeicestershireR. S. Baker, ‘Peg Meryll’ (1871), 130.)
BushelsHyde, De Ludis Orientalibus Libri Duo (1694), 204.
Buttons (played on a slate with buttons in 1890s New ZealandBrian Sutton–Smith, ‘The Games of New Zealand Children’ (1972), 151.)
Figmill (in Clarence, New York, USA)William W. Heist, ‘Figmill’ (1951). (This name derives from an American manufacturer of equipment, but originally might derive from the Swiss term «Figgi und Müli».)
Morris (CornwallR. S. Baker, ‘Peg Meryll’ (1871), 130.)
Madell or MedalJohn C. Francis, Notes and Queries (1898), 333.
Marl (WiltshireR. S. Baker, ‘Peg Meryll’ (1871), 130.)
MarlinHyde, De Ludis Orientalibus Libri Duo (1694), 204.
Marrel(’s)Alice Bertha Gomme, The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1894), 416. or MarrellsJohn C. Francis, Notes and Queries (1898), 173.
MarnullJohn C. Francis, Notes and Queries (1898), 28.
Maurice or Morrice (NorfolkR. S. Baker, ‘Peg Meryll’ (1871), 130.)
Mill (DevonR. S. Baker, ‘Peg Meryll’ (1871), 130.)
Meg Merry-legs (LincolnshireR. S. Baker, ‘Peg Meryll’ (1871), 130.)
Merils (EssexR. S. Baker, ‘Peg Meryll’ (1871), 130.), Merrils,Alice Bertha Gomme, The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1894), 414. or MerrillsJohn C. Francis, Notes and Queries (1898), 173.
MerellesAlice Bertha Gomme, The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1894), 415; John C. Francis, Notes and Queries (1898), 90; R. S. Baker, ‘Peg Meryll’ (1871), 130. or Merell(s)Alice Bertha Gomme, The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1894), 416.
Merls (in Cleveland, England)Alice Bertha Gomme, The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1894), 419.
Merry Hole (NorthamptonshireR. S. Baker, ‘Peg Meryll’ (1871), 130.)
Merry Peg (OxfordshireR. S. Baker, ‘Peg Meryll’ (1871), 130.)
MorelsR. S. Baker, ‘Peg Meryll’ (1871), 130.
Murrells (CambridgeshireR. S. Baker, ‘Peg Meryll’ (1871), 130.)
NinepennyR. S. Baker, ‘Peg Meryll’ (1871), 130. or Ninepenny Morris (in Gloucestershire – but played with 12 men)Alice Bertha Gomme, The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1894), 416.
Nine Holes (North of EnglandR. S. Baker, ‘Peg Meryll’ (1871), 130.)
Nine Mens MoralsHyde, De Ludis Orientalibus Libri Duo (1694), 204.
Nine Men’s Morrice (in Hampshire or HoldernessAlice Bertha Gomme, The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1894), 419.)
Nine Men o’ MorrisJohn C. Francis, Notes and Queries (1898), 89.
Nine Men’s WelcomeTimothy Finn, Pub Games of England (1981), 103.
Nine Peg O Merryal (North LincolnshireR. S. Baker, ‘Peg Meryll’ (1871), 130.)
Nine Pin/Penny MiracleHyde, De Ludis Orientalibus Libri Duo (1694), 204; R. S. Baker, ‘Peg Meryll’ (1871), 130.
Nine Pin/Penny MorisHyde, De Ludis Orientalibus Libri Duo (1694), 204.
Nine Pin MerellsHyde, De Ludis Orientalibus Libri Duo (1694), 204.
(Nine) Peg Morris (by John Clare, a rustic English poet)Alice Bertha Gomme, The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1894), 416.
Nine Stone MorrisJohn C. Francis, Notes and Queries (1898), 89.
Peg Meryll (played in Hargrave with 11 men, and ‘flying’ at 5 menR. S. Baker, ‘Peg Meryll’ (1871), 133.) or MerrilpegAlice Bertha Gomme, The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1894), 416.
Puzzle-PoundJohn C. Francis, Notes and Queries (1898), 333.
Study, in the north of EnglandAlfred Lister, ‘Tipcat, and Other Chinese Games’ (1870).
In other languages it has been called:
Bangla: ন গুটি (na guṭi) ‘nine beads’, or পাইত(-পাইত) (pāit(-pāit)) ‘get(-ting)’Shabbir Ahmmed Tarafder, ‘লৌকিক খেলা - পাইত | Folk game - pait’ (2018).
Chinese:
An old name is 馬城 (Mandarin: mǎ chéng) ‘horse walls’Wu and Sebillaud, ‘Research on the merels game in medieval China’, 4.
More modern names include: 成三棋 (Mandarin: chéng sān qí) ‘achieving three game’,Ibid. or simply 三棋 (Mandarin: sān qí) ‘three game’Stewart Culin, Korean Games with notes on the corresponding games of China and Japan (1895), 102.
連棋 (Mandarin: lián qí) ‘lining-up game’Wu and Sebillaud, ‘Research on the merels game in medieval China’, 4.
連環馬棋 (Mandarin: lián huán mǎ qí) ‘interlinked horses“Horse” is the usual term for a game piece. game’Wu and Sebillaud, ‘Research on the merels game in medieval China’, 4.
捉三 (Cantonese: zuk¹ saam¹; Mandarin: zhuō sān) ‘catching three’Alfred Lister, ‘Tipcat, and Other Chinese Games’ (1870).
直棋 (Mandarin: zhí qí) ‘line game’Wu and Sebillaud, ‘Research on the merels game in medieval China’, 4.
吉日格 jí rì gé,Ibid. apparently derived from the Mongolian name for this class of game, жирэг (ᠵᠢᠷᠡᠭ?)Iwona Kabzińska-Stawarz, Games of Mongolian Shepherds (1991), 39–40.
In Teochew it can be called 直直 (dig⁸ dig⁸) ‘straight line’,W. H. Newell, ‘A Few Asiatic Board Games Other than Chess’ (1959). and there was a Teochew proverb that “[Chinese] chess is for immortals; straight-line is for beggars” (仙棋乞食直 siêng¹ gi⁵ keg⁴ ziah⁸ dig⁸).Ibid. Much thanks to Brandon Seah for helping to figure this transliteration out.
French: le jeu du moulin ‘the mill game’
Greek: τὸ τριόδι ‘trio’,George Frederick Abbott, Macedonian Folklore (1903), 295. or τριώδιον ‘triodium’.Hyde, De Ludis Orientalibus Libri Duo (1694), 205.
German: names are based on the number nine, e.g. Neunstein ‘nine stone’, Neunten Stein ‘ninth stone’, Neunemahl ‘nine flour’; or on the mill, e.g. Mühlespiel ‘mill game’. Research by Jonas Richter indicates that the ‘nine’ names are the older form.Jonas Richter, ‘German Names for Merels’ (2023). In 1575 Johann Fischart included it in his version of Gargantua as Fickmül.See the Gargantua article for more about Fischart’s list.
Gujarati: નવ કાકરી (nav kākarī) ‘nine pieces’
Hindi: नवकंकरी (navakaṅkarī),Raamesh Gowri Raghavan, Ancient Indian Board Games (2020). or नव गोटी (nav gōṭī), both meaning ‘nine pieces’
Kannada: ನವಕಂಕರಿ (navakaṅkari) ‘nine pieces’, ಒಂಬತ್ತು ಕಾಯಿಯ ಆಟ (ombattu kāyiya āṭa) ‘game of nine nuts (=pieces)’, or generically ಸಾಲು (ಮಣೆ) ಆಟ (sālu (maṇe) āṭa) ‘row (board) game’
Korean: 곤질(고누) (gonjil(-gonu))Given as kon-tjil in older books (Culin, Korean Games with notes on the corresponding games of China and Japan, 102).
Mono: yakamaido ‘square game’Stewart Culin, Games of the North American Indians (1907), 796.
Ottoman Turkish: طقوز طاش (dokuz taş) ‘nine stone’, or دقورجین (dokurġin) [something to do with nine?]Hyde, De Ludis Orientalibus Libri Duo (1694), 206.
Swiss: Nüünischtei.SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen, ‘Mundart-Lexikon’ (2014).
Telugu: దాడి (dāḍi) ‘attack’
Urdu: نو گوٹی (nau guṭī) ‘nine pieces’Hem Chandra Das-Gupta, ‘A Few Types of Sedentary Games prevalent in the Punjab’ (1926), 145.
© 2016 Ken Broadhurstused with permission
A jeu du moulin in the south-west wall of the Château du Moulin (Loir-et-Cher, France). Built between 1480–1501, this is a punny reference to the name of the original owner, Philippe du Moulin. There is another Three Men’s Morris board on the eastern wall, and the nearby Château de Gien has a similar motif (Marisa Uberti, The Merels Board Enigma (2012), 103).
Analysis
With perfect play, the game is a draw.Ralph Gasser, ‘Solving Nine Men’s Morris’ (1996); Gábor E. Gévay and Gábor Danner, ‘Calculating Ultrastrong and Extended Solutions for Nine Men’s Morris, Morabaraba, and Lasker Morris’ (2016). Interestingly, it is possible for the starting player to make a losing move as early as their third turn.Gasser, ‘Solving Nine Men’s Morris’, 112.
Variants
Alternate boards
The standard rules can be adapted to play on many different boards. As in standard Nine Men’s Morris, mills must always be in a straight line and may not turn corners.
Babbage also apparently experimented with differently-shaped boards, in both triangular and pentagonal shapes,David Singmaster, ‘Sources in recreational mathematics’ (2004). but I have not yet been able to see the manuscript in question.
Alternate boards of German origin: (Hajo Bücken and Dirk Hanneforth, Klassische Spiele ganz neu (1990), 58) a ‘sun-mill’ (played with 12 pieces each), and two boards constructed from nested pentagons. The first pentagonal board is played with 11 pieces each, the second is designed to be played by two or more players: for two players use 12 pieces; for three, 8; for four, 6; and for five, 5.
Two variations of a ‘cube’ board by David Parlett (David Parlett, The Oxford History of Board Games (1999), 122). On the coloured board, a mill may not cross between differently-coloured regions, and the middle point may only be taken to complete a mill or prevent completion of a mill on the next turn.
The Möbius board (invented by Ingo Althöfer), another pentagonal board (without joined corners), and a hexagonal board.
Twelve Men’s Morris
This is played with twelve pieces per player, on a board that has diagonals.Claudia Zaslavsky, Math Games & Activities from Around the World (1998), 7; Murray, History of Board-Games Other Than Chess, 48. In all other respects, the game is the same.
© Shutterstock.com/Delpixel 235028281
A Twelve Men’s Morris game being played.
Nomenclature
In other countries or languages Twelve Men’s Morris has been known as:
Bengali: বারো গুটি (পাইত পাইত) (bārō-guṭi (pāit-pāit)) ‘twelve bead [unsure]’.Das-Gupta, ‘Few Types of Sedentary Games prevalent in the Punjab’, 145.
Sri Lanka (Sinhala): නෙරෙංචි or නෙරිංචි (nereṁciAlso transcribed as Nerenchi or Niranchy. or neriṁci), possibly named after a plant that has very thorny seeds.Zaslavsky, Math Games & Activities from Around the World, 16; Leopold Ludovici, ‘The Sports and Games of the Singhalese’ (1873), 34; Parker, Ancient Ceylon, 577.
Urdu: بارہ گوٹی (bārā guṭī) ‘twelve pieces’.
With Dice
A game being played with dice, from Alfonso X’s Book of Games.
Alfonso X’s book of games describes a variant played with dice.Alfonso X, Libro de açedrex, dados e tablas (1283). While it is unclear from the manuscript what the exact rules are, Ulrich Schädler offers the following interpretation:Ulrich Schädler, ‘Medieval Nine-Men’s Morris with Dice’ (2000). This interpretation disagrees with previous interpretations given in A History of Board-Games Other Than Chess and Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations; see the article for full details.
During the placement phase, no mills may be made.
During the movement phase, each player rolls three dice before moving a piece. If they roll any of the special rolls
, 
, 
, or 
, they may ‘fly’ a piece from anywhere on the board to complete a mill (or two mills). For any other result, the player moves as normal.
Lasker Morris
This variant was developed by Emanuel Lasker, who was World Chess Champion from 1894 to 1921. It unifies the two phases of the game into one.
Play is as in the standard game, except that each player has 10 pieces instead of 9, and on a player’s turn they may either place a new piece or move a piece that is already on the board.
With perfect play the game is a draw.Peter Stahlhacke, ‘The Game of Lasker Morris’ (2003); Gévay and Danner, ‘Calculating Ultrastrong and Extended Solutions for Nine Men’s Morris, Morabaraba, and Lasker Morris’.
See also
Other general references include The Oxford History of Board Games, Math Games & Activities from Around the World (12), Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations (vol. 1, p. 93), A History of Board-Games Other Than Chess (§3.5.4, p. 43), Goddard (1901), Notes and Queries (28, 89–90, 173, 333), and Played at the Pub (150).
References
Anonymous (). ‘The Metropolitical Visitation of Archdeacon Laud’. Associated Architectural Societies Reports and Papers vol. 29: pages 477–534. Edited by A. Percival Moore.
Abbott, George Frederick (). Macedonian Folklore. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK.
Alfonso X (). Libro de açedrex, dados e tablas. Alfonso X: Toledo, Spain.
Baker, R. S. (). ‘Peg Meryll’. Associated Architectural Societies’ Reports & Papers vol. 11 (1): pages 127–134.
Bell, R. C. (). Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations (revised edition). Dover Publications: New York, NY, USA. ISBN: 978-0-486-23855-5. First published in 1960 by Oxford University Press.
Two volumes of the second edition revised and republished as one.
Bücken, Hajo and Dirk Hanneforth (). Klassische Spiele ganz neu [text in German]. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag: Germany. ISBN: 978-3-499-18901-2.
Crist, Walter, Anne-Elizabeth Dunn-Vaturi, and Alex de Voogt (). Ancient Egyptians at Play. Bloomsbury Academic: London, UK. ISBN: 978-1-4742-2119-1.
Culin, Stewart (). Korean Games with notes on the corresponding games of China and Japan. University of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia, PA, USA. ark:/13960/t1pg2586d.
Das-Gupta, Hem Chandra (). ‘A Few Types of Sedentary Games prevalent in the Punjab’. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal vol. 22: pages 143–148.
De Curzon, Henri (). La Règle Du Temple [text in French]. Librairie Renouard: Paris, France.
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