These are Sahrat’s default rules. Where tables differ from one majlis to another, the difference is a table option, and every option is free.
Carrom in Sahrat is classic Carrom on a single board: you flick your coins into the pockets with the striker. Pocket all your coins and cover the queen to win the board.
1Players
- Singles (one against one): face to face.
- Partners (two against two): your partner sits across from you, and everyone shoots from his own side.
- One board decides the match.
2Board and pieces
- Pockets in the four corners.
- The striker is a little bigger than the coins.
- 18 coins: 9 white and 9 black, plus the queen in the centre.
- Opening layout: the queen in the middle, 6 coins round her, and 12 round those.
- White starts, and the first player (or first team) plays white.
3Your turn
- Place the striker on your baseline and shoot forward.
- Pocket one of your own coins: shoot again.
- Pocket none of yours (or only an opponent's coin): the turn passes, and the opponent's coin stays down and counts for him.
- The turn timer is 15 seconds. When time runs out, the game plays the shot for you.
- In partners, play goes to the right.
4The queen
- The queen only counts after you have pocketed your first coin. Before that, if she goes down she returns to the centre, with no foul.
- You must cover her: pocket one of your own coins in the same shot or the very next one. If you do not, she goes back to the centre.
- If the queen and one of your own coins go down together, she is covered.
5Fouls
- If the striker goes in a pocket (a foul):
- the coins pocketed in that shot go back to the centre, and so does the queen,
- one of your own coins already pocketed also goes back (if you have one down),
- and the turn passes to the opponent.
- The last coin of your colour before the queen is covered: it does not count, it goes back to the centre, it is a foul and the turn passes. (The same applies if you sink the opponent's last coin.)
- Returned coins are placed in the centre, or the nearest free spot round it.
6Winning
- Pocket all nine coins of one colour and cover the queen, and that colour wins.
- Even if the opponent is the one who sank the last coin of your colour, the colour still wins.
- In partners: if a player leaves the table for good, his team loses the board.