Editing Three men's morris

{{Short description|Abstract strategy game}}
{{Infobox Game|
| subject_name = Three men's Morris
| image_link = 
| players = 2
| setup_time = < 1 minute
| playing_time = < 1 hour
| random_chance = None
| skills = Strategy
| footnotes =
}}
'''Three men's morris''' is an abstract strategy game played on a three by three board (counting lines) 
that is similar to [[tic-tac-toe]]. It is also related to six men's morris and [[nine men's morris]]. A player wins by forming a mill, that is, three of their own pieces in a row.

== 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>

== History ==
According to [[R. C. Bell]], the earliest known board for the game includes diagonal lines and was "cut into the roofing slabs of the temple at [[Kurna]] in Egypt"; he estimated a date for them of {{circa|1400}}&nbsp;[[Common era|BCE]].<ref name="Bell vol. 1"/> However, Friedrich Berger wrote that some of the diagrams at Kurna include [[Coptic cross]]es, making it "doubtful" that the diagrams date to 1400&nbsp;BCE. Berger concluded, "certainly they cannot be dated."<ref name="Berger">{{cite journal |last=Berger |first=Friedrich |date=2004 |title=From circle and square to the image of the world: a possible interpretation for some petroglyphs of merels boards |journal=Rock Art Research |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=11–25 |url=http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/aura/shared_files/Berger1.pdf |format=PDF |access-date=2007-01-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041121040028/http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/aura/shared_files/Berger1.pdf |archive-date=2004-11-21}}</ref> When played on this board, the game is called ''tapatan'' in the [[Philippines]] and ''luk tsut k'i'' ('six man chess') in [[China]].<ref name="Culin">{{cite journal |last=Culin |first=Stewart |date=October–December 1900 |title=Philippine Games |journal=American Anthropologist |series=New Series |volume=2 |issue=4 |pages=643–656 |jstor=659313 |doi=10.1525/aa.1900.2.4.02a00040|doi-access=free }}</ref> It is thought that ''luk tsut k'i'' was played during the time of [[Confucius]], c.&nbsp;500&nbsp;BCE.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/VirtualExhibits/rowgames/tapatan.html |title=Tapatan |access-date=2007-01-09 |date=2005-09-12 |work=Row Games |publisher=[[Elliott Avedon Museum and Archive of Games]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070208194807/http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/VirtualExhibits/rowgames/tapatan.html |archive-date=2007-02-08 }}</ref> Centuries later, the game was mentioned in [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Ars Amatoria]]'', according to R. C. Bell.<ref name="Bell vol. 1" /> In book III (c.&nbsp;8&nbsp;CE), after discussing {{lang|la|[[Ludus latrunculorum|latrones]]}}, a popular board game, Ovid wrote:[http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/ovid/ovid.artis3.shtml]

{{quote|
Est genus, in totidem tenui ratione redactum
<br>&nbsp;     Scriptula, quot menses lubricus annus habet:
<br>Parva tabella capit ternos utrimque lapillos,
<br>&nbsp;     In qua vicisse est continuasse suos.
<br>Mille facesse iocos; turpe est nescire puellam
<br>&nbsp;     Ludere: ludendo saepe paratur amor.
}}
This, translated, says:
{{quote|
It is a genus, reduced to the same thinness
<br>&nbsp;      The scriptures, how many months is there in a slippery year:
<br>A small panel holds three stones on both sides,
<br>&nbsp;      In which victory he continued his people.
<br>He would have made a thousand jokes; it is a shame not to know the girl
<br>&nbsp;      To play: love is often prepared by playing.
}}
<blockquote>There is another game divided into as many parts as there are months in the year. A table has three pieces on either side; the winner must get all the pieces in a straight line. It is a bad thing for a girl not to know how to play, for love often comes into being during play.</blockquote> Boards were carved into the [[cloister]] seats at the [[England|English]] [[cathedral]]s at [[Canterbury]], [[Gloucester]], [[Norwich, England|Norwich]], [[Salisbury, England|Salisbury]] and [[Westminster Abbey]]; the game was quite popular in England in the 13th century.<ref name="Bell vol. 1" /> These boards used holes, not lines, to represent the nine spaces on the board&mdash;hence the name ''nine-holes''&mdash;and forming a diagonal row did not win the game.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/VirtualExhibits/rowgames/nineholes.html |title=Nine Holes |access-date=2007-01-09 |date=2005-09-12 |work=Row Games |publisher=[[Elliott Avedon Museum and Archive of Games]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070208195130/http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/VirtualExhibits/rowgames/nineholes.html |archive-date=2007-02-08}}</ref>

The name of the game may be related to [[Morris dance]]s (and hence to [[Moorish]]). However, according to Daniel King, "the word 'morris' has nothing to do with the old English dance of the same name. It comes from the Latin word {{lang|la|merellus}}, which means a counter or gaming piece."<ref name="King">{{cite book |last=King |first=Daniel |title=Games |url=https://archive.org/details/gamesfrombackgam0000king |url-access=registration |date=2003 |publisher=[[Kingfisher plc]] |isbn=0-7534-0816-3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/gamesfrombackgam0000king/page/10 10–11] }}</ref>

==Related games==
* Six men's morris and [[nine men's morris]] use six and nine pieces, respectively, and are played on different boards.
* In [[tic-tac-toe]], pieces are placed (or marks are made) until the board is full; if neither player has an [[orthogonal]] or diagonal line at this point, the game is a draw.
* Extended tic-tac-toe, like the three men's morris game, each player has three pieces, but when moving pieces, players must first move their first pieces, then the second pieces, then the third pieces, then the first pieces, and so on. This game is harder than both tic-tac-toe and three men's morris, but the first player has a way to win by taking the edge first. Alternatively, by taking the center or corner first, the game will be drawn.
* ''Tapatan'', from [[Philippine]], the same game with additional rule that pieces can only move to adjacent spaces.
* ''Marelle'', from [[France]], the same game with additional rule that pieces can only move to adjacent spaces and the center space (central intersection point) cannot be used until after each player drops their first piece.
* ''[[Tant Fant]]'', from [[India]], the same game with additional rule that pieces can only move to adjacent spaces and the pieces are already dropped before the game is started.
* ''[[Achi (game)|Achi]]'', from [[Ghana]], the same game with additional rule that pieces can only move to adjacent spaces, and each player has four (instead of three) pieces.<ref name="Bell vol. 2">{{cite book |last=Bell |first=R. C. |title=Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations, volume 2 |date=1979 |publisher=[[Dover Publications]] |location=New York |isbn=0-486-23855-5<!-- Volumes 1 and 2 are bound in the same book and thus have the same ISBN. --> |pages=55–56 }}</ref>
* ''[[Picaria]]'', a Native American variation invented in New Mexico, adds diagonal attachments to the central edge points, yielding four additional interior points each located between the center and corner points, may have 9 or 13 spaces, the center space (central intersection point) cannot be used until after each player drops their first piece (a variant is the center space cannot be used after all pieces are dropped).<ref name="Simonds Mohr Games">{{cite book |last=Simonds Mohr |first=Merilyn |title=The Games Treasury |url=https://archive.org/details/gamestreasurymor0000mohr |url-access=registration |date=1993 |publisher=Chapters Publishing |location=Shelburne, Vermont |isbn=1-881527-23-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/gamestreasurymor0000mohr/page/28 28] }}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==

* Play [https://www.three-mens-morris.com/ Three Men's Morris online] with another person as real-time browser game

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last=Murray |first=H. J. R. |author-link=H. J. R. Murray |title=A History of Board Games other than Chess |date=1952 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] }}
{{Tic-Tac-Toe}}

[[Category:Morris games]]
[[Category:Solved games]]