Editing Three men's morris (section)

== Rules ==
[[image:Three Men's Morris variant board.svg|thumb|240px|A board for three men's morris. This pattern has been found carved into the roof of the temple of [[Kurna]].]]

Each player has three pieces. The winner is the first player to align their three pieces on a line drawn on the board. There are 3 horizontal lines, 3 vertical lines and 2 diagonal lines.

The board is empty to begin the game, and players take turns placing their pieces on empty intersections. Once all pieces are placed (assuming there is no winner by then), play proceeds with each player moving one of their pieces per turn.<ref name="Bell vol. 1">{{cite book |last=Bell |first=R. C. |title=Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations, volume 1 |date=1979 |publisher=[[Dover Publications]] |location=[[New York City]] |isbn=0-486-23855-5<!-- Volumes 1 and 2 are bound in the same book and thus have the same ISBN. --> |pages=91–92 }}</ref> A piece may move to any vacant point on the board, not just an adjacent one.<ref name="murray">{{cite book|last=Murray|first=H. J. R.|title=A History of Chess|date=1913|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=London|page=614}}</ref>

According to [[H. J. R. Murray]]’s ''[[A History of Chess]]'', there is an alternative version in which pieces may not move to any vacant point, but only to any ''adjacent'' linked empty position, i.e. from a corner to the middle of an adjacent edge, from the middle of an edge to the center or an adjacent corner, or from the center to the middle of an edge. Murray calls the first version "nine holes" and the second version "three men's morris" or "the smaller merels".<ref name="murray" />
In this variant of the game, there is a [[Determinacy#Winning strategies|winning strategy]] for the player who goes first, unless the first player is not allowed to place the first piece in the centre, in which case neither player has a winning strategy.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Puzzle #246 |journal=New Scientist |date=Nov 1, 2023 |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26034632-700-puzzle-246-can-you-work-out-how-many-delegates-speak-one-language/}} See the section "#245: Three men's morris{{snd}}Solution".</ref>