Carrom: When to Go for the Queen, and How to Cover It

Ask anyone who grew up with a carrom board and they will tell you the same thing: the game is decided by the queen. Pocket it and cover it, and you are three points up. Pocket it and miss the cover, and you have handed your opponent a turn and put the queen straight back in the middle.

This guide explains the rule exactly as it is played on Alex Play Zone, and then the thinking that makes the queen work for you.

The rule, step by step

• You may not pocket the queen until at least one coin of your own colour is down.
• After you pocket the queen you must cover it — pocket one of your own coins — on the same shot or on your very next shot.
• If you do not, the queen returns to the centre of the board.
• No one may finish while the queen is uncovered: a last coin pocketed then comes back to the centre.
• Pocket the striker while the queen is waiting for its cover and the queen goes back as well.

Think about the cover first

The commonest mistake is to see the queen sitting near a pocket and take it at once. Before you do, look for your cover. Is there one of your coins that you would be confident of pocketing from where the striker can be placed? If the honest answer is no, leave the queen alone.

Remember that pocketing the queen gives you another shot only because you must attempt the cover — and the board will have changed. Coins move. A cover that looked easy can be blocked after a hard queen shot, so play the queen gently.

The best moment

Early in a board the coins are bunched and good covers are rare. At the very end you cannot pocket your last coin until the queen is dealt with, which forces you to play it under pressure. The comfortable window is the middle of the board: you have two or three coins down, several still out, and the cluster in the centre has opened up.

If your opponent is clearing coins faster than you, the queen becomes urgent — a covered queen is the three points that can still win you a close board.

Queen and cover in one shot

The safest cover is no cover at all: pocket one of your coins and the queen in the same shot. It happens more often than you would think when the queen sits beside one of your coins near a pocket. Aim to send your own coin in directly and let the striker or the coin push the queen after it.

Denying the queen

Defence matters too. If your opponent has a coin down and the queen is easy for them, you can spoil it without pocketing anything: nudge the queen away from the pocket, or leave one of your own coins in the line between their baseline and the queen. A turn spent making their best shot difficult is rarely wasted.

Three habits for the cover shot

• Slide the striker until it, the coin and the pocket are as near a straight line as you can get.
• Use only as much power as the distance needs — hard shots send the striker into the pocket behind the coin, and that is a foul.
• If no direct shot exists, choose the coin that sits nearest a pocket rather than the one nearest the striker.

In short: Never take the queen without knowing which coin will cover it. Decide the cover, then play the queen softly.