Carrom is a strike & pocket game played between two or four (team of two) players on a polished wooden square board wherein, each player/team aims to pocket his/her pieces along with a queen before the opponent is able to do so. 
The objective of the game is to use a striker and flick it with finger to make contact with the circular wooden pieces (carrom men) so as to propel them into any of the four holes (pockets) made at the four corners of the board. 
There are many variations available to play the game of carrom and the rules have to be defined according to the variation being played.

The standard game of carrom consists of a square board with 18 wooden carrom men (9 black & 9 white) pieces, one queen (red in colour) piece & one plastic striker. The details of the equipment used during the game are explained below.

Carrom Board:

• The carrom board is positioned 60-70 cm above the ground on a flat surface and the board is usually placed on a four legged square stand.
• The playing area on the board is 73.50-74.00 cm and is surrounded by wooden boundary frames of 6.35-7.60 cm in width and they rise above the playing area up to a height of 1.9-2.54 cm on all the sides. The playing surface is at least 8 mm in thickness.   
• The board comprises of four circular holes of diameter 4.45 cm each placed on each of the corners. Each hole is covered from beneath by a net.
• At the centre of the board there is a centre circle of diameter 3.18 cm which is surrounded by an outer circle of diameter 17 cm. At the beginning of the game, all the carrom men are arranged within the outer circle. 
• The board has baselines on all four sides at a distance of 10.15cm from the inner side of the frame and the two baselines on each of the four sides has a length of 47 cm parallel to the frame. The baseline is closed by a circle of diameter 3.18 cm at both the ends and within this circle a coloured circle of diameter 2.54 cm is highlighted which is called as the base circle. There are a total of eight base circles on the board.
• Four arrows of length not more than 26.70 cm are drawn at each corner of the carrom board at an angle of 45 degrees to any of the adjacent sides pointing towards the centre circle from one side & to the hole corners on the other side.   

Carrom men: There are nine black, nine white and one red carrom men used while playing the game of carrom board. All carrom men should be circular in shape, uniform and have smooth movement with the specifications are as follows:

• Carrom men are made of wood and are circular in shape with diameter of 3.02-3.18 cm. 
• Each carrom men should have a thickness of 0.7-0.9 cm and weight of 5.25-5.50 grams.

Striker: The circular striker can be made of any material other than ivory & metal and usually, plastic material strikers are used while playing. The striker diameter should not be more than 4.13 cm and the weight should not be more than 15.00 grams. 

Other equipment: Other equipments that are generally used consist of stand, sitting chair/stool, board powder and lights.

A singles match comprises of two players while a doubles match comprises of four players without any substitution.

• For a singles match, the players sit opposite to each other and for a doubles match the partners sit opposite to each other. 
• During the match, no body part of the player should touch the carrom board or stand, except his/her playing arm. 
• The sitting position once taken has to be continued throughout the match and no part of the player except the hand is allowed to go beyond the imaginary lines of the arrows.

Before the start of the play, a toss is conducted and the side winning the toss has the right to choose between the side to sit or to strike first.

Before the start of the game, the board is set by arranging all the carrom men within the outside circle on the carrom board. This is done as follows:

• The queen is placed at the centre of the circle and six carrom men (3 white & 3 black) are placed around the queen in a circle (also called first circle) such that each carrom men touches the queen as well as the neighbouring piece.
• The remaining twelve carrom men (6 white & 6 black) are then placed around the first circle such that each outer circle carrom men touches the inner circle pieces.
• While arranging the carrom men in the first & second circle, the black & white pieces are placed on alternate basis. All carrom men should be arranged in a compact round shape within the outer circle of the carrom board and the player is allowed to use his/her fingers/striker to keep them intact.

The break rules are as follows: 

• The player/team who breaks first shall have white carrom men during that board and the black carrom men belongs to the opposing team with the queen as common between the two teams.
• The player/team breaking first has three chances to touch the carrom men with the striker else the opponent gets the chance to break. However, there is no penalty applicable.  
• The turn to break shall pass to the opponent for the next board and so on. In a doubles match, the right to break passes to the player sitting on right side of the player who had a break in the previous board.

Depending upon the level of the play, a match usually continues till any of the player/team has reached a score of 29 points. There is no set number of boards that can be played and the play continues till any of the player/team hits a total of 29 points (scores added after each board). The player/team who pockets all his carrom men wins the board and the scoring after each board is done as follows:

• To determine the winner’s score after each board, the number of opponent’s pieces remaining on the board is counted and each piece carries 1 point.
• Apart from that, in case the board winner has pocketed queen as well then additional 5 points are added to the score until the score is less than 24 points.
• In case, the board loser pockets the queen then he/she doesn’t get any advantage except that the 5 points for pocketing the queen are not added to the winner’s score.    
• In case, the board winner has already reached a score of 24 points then he/she doesn’t get the additional 5 point advantage of pocketing the queen.

Apart from above scoring rules, there are tournaments that are played for 25 points or more number of board wins in 8 boards. Sometimes, best of 3 or 5 board wins is also played.

• The players take turns to strike/pocket carom men on alternate basis. In case, own colour carom men have been pocketed then that player continues to strike till he is unable to pocket any carrom men of his colour in his/her subsequent strikes. 
• For a doubles match, the strike is passed to the player sitting right of the player who was the striker before him/her (or anti-clockwise direction). 

In a singles match, the change of sides is made by the players in opposite direction after the end of each game. For a doubles match, the change of sides is made by the players to their respective next right hand side after end of each game. There may be a case wherein, the change of sides is made after any of the player/team has reached 13/15 points.

The rules for pocketing the queen are as follows:

• Player needs to pocket queen first and then his/her own colour carrom men in the same turn for queen to be considered as pocketed successfully.
• A player can pocket queen only after he/she has pocketed at least one of his/her carrom men. 
• Any of the players has to pocket and cover (carrom men) the queen before the end of each board and the points are added to his/her score accordingly.
• If the player is able to pocket the queen but unable to cover it through any of his/her pieces then the queen continues to be in play & is returned back to the board (at the centre circle).
• If the queen as well as the carrom men is pocketed together by the player then the queen is considered to be pocketed.
• If the queen as well as the striker is pocketed together through a valid strike then the queen along with additional carrom men of the player will be placed on the board.

In case of a foul being committed during the game the player looses his/her turn and the player is penalized by having one of his/her pieces return to the board with the opponent having the right to place it anywhere on the board within the outer circle. If the player has not pocketed any of his/her carrom men and a foul is being committed then this is treated as a due and his/her carrom men is placed on the board after he pockets it during the game. The situations that result in fouls are as follows:

• If the striker is pocketed by the player 
• If the player pockets an opponent’s piece with direct strike. This comes with an additional penalty wherein, if the player has pocketed queen in the earlier strike of same turn then the queen also returns to the board.
• If the player pockets his/her final piece before the queen has been pocketed. This comes with an additional penalty of one more piece being placed back on the board. 
• If the player pockets his/her opponent’s final piece then the opponent’s piece is placed back on the board along with an additional penalty piece of the player.
• If the player touches any piece on the board apart from his/her striker. 
• If the player fails to break successfully in three attempts.

The designated match officials for the game of carrom are as follows:

• Technical Director
• Chief referee
• Assistant Chief Referee
• Umpire