Six Men's Morris

👥 2 players 📍 Indoor📍 Anywhere ⚡ Moderate 🧩 Moderate ⏱ 10-20 minutes 🎂 Ages 6+

Quick Pitch

Six Men's Morris is a two-player strategy game from medieval Europe where you place and then move pieces to form rows of three, capturing your opponent's pieces each time you do.

Hook

Think of Six Men's Morris as the middle sibling of the Morris family — more pieces and more board than Three Men's Morris, but a more manageable game than the full nine-piece version. You place your six pieces first, trying to line up three in a row (called a mill) to knock out one of your opponent's pieces. Once all pieces are placed, you slide them along the board's lines to keep forming mills while blocking theirs. A quick, satisfying two-player abstract game with centuries of history.

Equipment Needed

The Board

Two concentric squares connected by lines:

1 — 2 — 3
|       |
4   5   6
|       |
7 — 8 — 9

Outer Square: 1-2-3-6-9-8-7-4-1
Inner Square: 5 (center only, in some variants with cross connections)

More typically:

1 — 2 — 3
|   |   |
4 — 5 — 6
|   |   |
7 — 8 — 9
(This is 9 points)

Or with true 16-point board:
1 — 2 — 3 — 4
|           |
5   6 — 7   8
|   |   |   |
9 — 10 — 11 — 12
|   |   |   |
13  14 — 15  16
|           |
17 — 18 — 19 — 20
(Actually 20 points; for 16 points, remove corners)

Standard Six Men's Morris typically uses the two-square board (16 points):

 1 — 2 — 3
 |       |
 4   5   6
 |       |
 7 — 8 — 9

10 — 11 — 12
|        |
13  14   15
|        |
16 — 17 — 18

Improvising the Board

  1. Drawn board: Draw two concentric squares on paper, connecting corresponding points
  2. Carved board: Carve two squares into wood with connecting lines

Pieces

  • 12 pieces total: 6 per player
  • Two colors or types to distinguish players

Setup

  1. Draw the board
  2. Each player takes 6 pieces
  3. The board starts empty
  4. Designate first player

Rules

Phase 1: Placement (First 6 Moves Per Player)

  1. Players alternate placing one piece on an empty intersection
  2. If you form a mill, capture one opponent piece
  3. You may remove any opponent piece from the board (not part of a mill, unless necessary)

Phase 2: Moving (After Initial Placement)

  1. Move one piece to an adjacent empty intersection
  2. If you form a mill, capture one opponent piece
  3. Continue until one player is reduced to 2 pieces (you win), or the game becomes locked

Mills

Three pieces in a straight line (orthogonal or including diagonal, depending on variant). Standard: orthogonal only (following the lines on the board).

Expert Player

Tips

Opening

  • Outer square control: The 8 outer positions are valuable early
  • Central points: Pits connecting outer and inner squares are contested
  • Balance placement: Spread pieces to create multiple mill threats

Middle Game

  • Reduce pieces gradually: Capture carefully, reducing opponent from 6 to 5 to 4 to 3
  • Maintain threats: Keep pieces positioned to form mills or block opponent's mills
  • Piece efficiency: Every piece should contribute to potential mills or defense

Endgame

  • Three-piece positions: With 3 pieces on each side, most movement is locked; careful positioning matters
  • Zugzwang: Create positions where opponent's only moves worsen their position

Variations

Diagonal Mills

Include diagonal connections in mill formation (increases complexity).

No Capture on Placement

Captures only occur during the movement phase, not the placement phase.

Extended Victory

Must reduce opponent to 1 piece, not 2.

Learn More — History & Origins

History & Origins

Six Men's Morris belongs to the broader Morris family of mill games, which are among the oldest continuously documented board games in the world. Evidence of mill game boards scratched into stone surfaces has been found at ancient Egyptian temples, Roman archaeological sites, and the floors and steps of medieval European cathedrals and castles — wherever people had a flat surface and time to spare. Six Men's Morris in particular is documented in medieval European manuscripts from the 12th and 13th centuries as a distinct variant with its own following.

The Morris family encompasses variants from Three Men's Morris (played by children) up through Nine Men's Morris (the most widely played) to Twelve Men's Morris. Six Men's Morris occupied the middle ground: more complex than the three-piece game, shorter and more accessible than the nine-piece version.

Cultural Context

Six Men's Morris is one of several Morris variants that have survived into modern play, primarily in traditional gaming circles and as an educational introduction to abstract strategy. The game is particularly useful for teaching the Morris concept — placement, mill formation, capture — to younger or newer players before they tackle Nine Men's Morris. It also appears in cultural preservation projects focused on medieval European games, where the full family of Morris variants is taught as a set. The game's short play time (usually 10–20 minutes) makes it practical in settings where a full game of Nine Men's Morris might be too long.

See Also