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Three Men’s Morris

Three Men’s Morris is an ancient mill game for two players.

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The game is played on the small mill board with diagonals.

Each player has three pieces, in contrasting colours. The aim of the game is to arrange all of one’s pieces in a line, either horizontally, vertically or diagonally. The first player to do this wins.

There are two ways to begin the game: either players take turns placing a piece on one of the empty points, or the pieces are lined up on two opposite sides of the board. If played with the pieces on the board at the start, then a player cannot win by lining their pieces up in their original position.

Starting the game by playing to the centre of the board is a forced win for the first player, so usually this move is banned.Elwyn Berlekamp, John Conway, and Richard Guy, Winning Ways (2003), 737.

After placing all their pieces, if no one has already won the game, the players then take turns moving a piece from one point to another.

History & Nomenclature

Three Men’s Morris has also been called “Ovid’s Game”, based on its similarity to a game that is alluded to in Ovid’s Ars Amatoria.Ibid., 736.

The name Three Men’s Morris seems to be a modern invention, based on the name Nine Men’s Morris. In the past it was known by other names in England, such as “Knockings In and Out”.J. T. Micklethwaite, ‘Notes on the abbey buildings of Westminster’ (1876), 20; J. T. Micklethwaite, ‘On the indoor games of school boys in the middle ages’ (1892), 321.

As evidenced by the many boards carved into stone walls and seats in cathedrals and monasteries, the game was played in England over a long period — MurrayH. J. R. Murray, A History of Board-Games Other Than Chess (1951), 41. dates it from after the Norman conquest in the 11th century, and states that it was “well established by 1300.” However, the game seems to have declined until in the 19th century it was not well known in England; English visitors to Ireland during this period describe it as an Irish game.

In 19th century Ireland, it was described as ‘universally’ played by the peasantry and named caisleáin gearrHyde (Thomas Hyde, De Ludis Orientalibus Libri Duo [Two Books On Oriental Games] (1694), 211) wrote this as “cashlan gherra”. ‘short castle’,Thomas Crofton Croker, Researches in the south of Ireland (1824), 171. or ‘top castle’.John Carey, ‘Top-Castle’ (1883), 257. Other old names in the United Kingdom come from areas such as Galloway (‘corsi-crown’)John Mactaggart, The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia (1876), 142. and Cumberland (‘copped-crown’).Hyde, De Ludis Orientalibus Libri Duo (1694), 211.

Murray also claims that a distinct game called ‘Nine Holes’ existed,Murray, History of Board-Games Other Than Chess. but I don’t believe that it was a separate game to Three Men’s Morris, as all the references seem to track back to a single entry in Robert Nares’ Glossary.Robert Nares, A Glossary (1822), 345. To me, it is the same game only played on a board that doesn’t show any lines. In any case, it is recorded as being played on the Isle of Man in 1674, when a man was presented in Malew for “playing nine holes on Easter day before evening prayers”,Joyce M. Oates, ‘Charles Rothwell/Rothmell 1695’ (2017). and again in 1699 when two men were presented in Lezayre for “Makeing Nine holes with their knives upon Sunday after evening Prayer”.F. Coakley, ‘Lezayre Presentments, 1699: Document No. 191’ (2000). Their punishment being “to acknowledge their fault, and promise Reformation.”

A game that appears to be Three Men’s Morris appears in Alfonso X’s Book of Games under the name Alquerque de Tres; however, this is in fact equivalent to Tic-Tac-Toe, since the game described there does not permit movement after the pieces have been placed.Sonja Musser Golladay, Los Libros de Acedrex Dados e Tablas: Historical, Artistic, and Metaphysical Dimensions of Alfonso X’s Book of Games (2007), 600. In modern Spanish the game is called tres en raya ‘three in a line’, castro ‘fort’, or pedrería ‘little stones’.Murray, History of Board-Games Other Than Chess, 41. In Catalan it is apparently called marro.D. José Brunet y Bellet, El Ajedrez: Investigaciones sobre su origen (1890), 204.

In Italy it has been called riga de tre ‘line of three’,Pietro Carrera, Il Gioco De Gli Scacchi (1617), 35. smerelli, mulino, semplice mulinello, filo, filetto, or tavoletta.Murray, History of Board-Games Other Than Chess, 41. In France, it has been called mérelles, marelles,Léon de Laborde, Notice des émaux, bijoux et objets divers, exposés dans les galeries du Musée du Louvre (1853), 381. or carré chinois ‘Chinese square’.Jean-Baptiste de La Curne de Sainte-Palaye, Dictionnaire Historique de L’Ancien Langage François (1880), 279.

The game is known as Tapatan in the Philippines,Claudia Zaslavsky, Math Games & Activities from Around the World (1998), 6. or 六卒棋 (luk⁶ zeot¹ kei⁴ ‘six man game’) in southern China.Stewart Culin, ‘Philippine Games’ (1900), 648. Note that Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations confuses its sources here and claims that Hyde states that “Luk Tsut K’i” was played in the time of Confucius.

Writing in 1694,Hyde, De Ludis Orientalibus Libri Duo (1694), 211. Thomas Hyde said that it was called “Che-Lo” in Chinese (i.e. 直六 Mandarin: zhí liù ‘straight six’), and “Hugjurè” in Persian (هجوره, probably not a native Persian word?), but he also stated that each player has 6 pieces.

The game is popular throughout India: In Bengali, it has been called তাঁত ফাঁত tā̃t phā̃tGiven as tant-fant in older works (Jatindra Mohan Datta, ‘A few types of Sedentary Games of Lower Bengal’ (1933), 167). (‘loom-[foom]’, possibly meaning something like weaving?), তিন গুটি পাইত পাইত (tin guṭi pāit pāit, ‘getting three pieces’), or simply তিন গুটি (tina guṭi) ‘three pieces’, and is played with the pieces starting on the board.

In Hindi it is called तीन गोटी (tīn gōṭī) ‘three pieces’; in Tamil கட்ட விளையாட்டு (kaṭṭa viḷaiyāṭṭu) ‘square game’ (although this is also used for other games).இரா. பாலசுப்பிரமணியம், தமிழர் நாட்டு விளையாட்டுகள் (2003), 59.

In Malayalam it is called നിര (niṟa) ‘line’, പടവെട്ടു (paṭaveṭṭu) or പട (paṭa) ‘battle’, or കല്ലുകളി (kallukaḷi) ‘stone game’ (although this is usually used for knucklebones).SPARCO TECH, ‘Interesting Game | Nira | Padavettu | Kallukali | Mind Game | Nostalgia | Old Memmories’ (2019). Pieces can either be placedIbid. or start on the sides of the board.vadakkan malloos, ‘Nira Kali/ traditional game in kerala’ (2020).

It is also played across Africa: in Madagascar it is called fanorona telo ‘three-Fanorona’;Murray, History of Board-Games Other Than Chess, 42. in Nigeria (Urhobo) epelle;Ibid., §3.3.18, p. 42. and in Somalia jara-badakh (‘reed […]’?).G. Marin, ‘Somali Games’ (1931), 505. In Marin’s orthography this is dʒara-badàχ. It is also variously spelled jara-badàkh, (Murray, History of Board-Games Other Than Chess, §3.1.10, p. 40) jarabadach, (Elvin Oscar Harbin, Games of Many Nations (1954), 18), carabawg (Murray, History of Board-Games Other Than Chess, §3.3.17, p. 42).

In Arabic it has been called دريس اثلاثة (drīs ath-thalātha).Niebuhr uses “drîs et talâte” (Carsten Niebuhr, Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien und andern umliegenden Ländern (1774), 172; Murray, History of Board-Games Other Than Chess, 41).

The game is also sometimes called Hopscotch, in Mathematical Recreations (290), but I think that name is better reserved for Picaria.As in Winning Ways (737).

Variants

Circular Three Men’s Morris

In this version the game is played on a circular board with ‘spokes’, meaning that mills can only be made across the center point. ZaslavskyZaslavsky, Math Games & Activities from Around the World, 4–5. calls it Shisima, and says it is played in Kenya.The original reference for this seems to be African Games of Strategy: A teaching manual by Louise Crane, but I haven’t been able to view this work. It has also been published as ‘Tri-Pin’ (Louis Marx & Co.).

See Heimann (2014) for an analysis of the game.

X-ceter-O

X-ceter-O (Endless Games, 2009) — originally in German X-für-O (Milton Bradley, 1985) — has 6 pieces numbered #1–#6, alternating between sides. The pieces must be placed or moved in order (and can leap to any unoccupied square), looping back to #1 after #6 has been moved.

King

King (Jim Wilkinson, 1985, Paradigm Games) is a straightforward commercial implementation of the game. No first play to centre, and pieces may move on the long diagonals.

Chung Toi

In Chung Toi (Reginald Chung, 1994, multiple publishers), each player’s pieces are octagonal, and have a cross incised upon the top. After the placement phase, a piece can move one or two squares (jumping is allowed) in any of the four directions that the cross is pointing, and may also then rotate so that its cross is facing a different set of squares.

A piece may also rotate without moving instead, as long as it changes orientation (i.e. passing without changing the board is not permitted).

See also

General references are: The Oxford History of Board Games (116), Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations (vol. 1, p. 91), and A History of Board-Games Other Than Chess (41).

Achi is often mis-described as a three-men’s-morris game (e.g. in Tic Tac Toe and other three-in-a-row games from Ancient Egypt to the modern computer), based on a misreading of the description in A History of Board-Games Other Than Chess.

Picaria is the same game played with additional diagonals on the board.

References