Carrom Online Rules: Queen, Cover & Fouls in Sarhny (صارحني)

Carrom looks simple from across the room: a square board, four pockets, a ring of small discs and one heavier striker. Then you sit down and the questions start. When does the queen count? What happens if the striker drops into a pocket? Who scores what at the end of a board? This guide answers all of that for carrom online in Sarhny (صارحني), using the rules exactly as the game applies them, so you and your friends can stop arguing about house rules and start flicking.

What carrom is, in one paragraph

Carrom is a tabletop game from South Asia that plays like a cross between billiards and shuffleboard played with your fingers. The board starts with nineteen pieces in the centre: nine white coins, nine black coins and one red coin called the queen. Each side owns a colour. You flick the striker from your own baseline to knock coins into the four corner pockets, and the side that clears its colour first, with the queen properly dealt with, wins the board. The International Carrom Federation (ICF) publishes the competitive rules, and the Classic mode in Sarhny is built on them.

Ways to play carrom in Sarhny

Open the Arena tab in the app and choose Carrom. The main screen offers three big options, with more tucked under “More options”:

• Online: a quick match against a real player. Online matches use Classic ICF rules over one board, and you need to be signed in.
• Invite a friend:the app gives you a six-character code to share, or you can tap “Invite followers” to send the invite inside Sarhny. Your friend opens Carrom, taps “Got a code from a friend?” and types it in.
• Vs computer: one tap against an opponent that adapts to your level (more on that below).
• Pass & Play: two or four players on one phone. The board turns to face each shooter, so nobody has to aim upside down.
• Doubles: four players, with you and a computer partner against two computer opponents.

How to aim and shoot

1. Slide the striker along your baseline, or use the slider, to place it. The striker cannot be placed touching a coin; the game tells you if the spot is not allowed.
2. Pull back from the striker to set the direction. The further you pull, the harder the shot. You can start the drag anywhere on the board, which helps on a small screen.
3. Turn on the “Aim guide” in settings if you want to see the striker's path and where the coin will go.
4. Release to shoot. Each shot has a 30-second clock.

The game runs on its own physics engine, so coins collide, spin off each other and bounce off the rails the way they do on a wooden board. That matters for strategy: a rebound off the side cushion is a real shot, not a lucky accident.

The Classic (ICF) rules, step by step

Colours and extra shots

One side plays white and the other black. When you pocket a coin of your own colour, you shoot again. Pocketing one of your opponent's coins does not earn you another turn; the game simply notes “That was their coin” and play passes across.

The queen and the cover

The queen is where house rules differ, so here is the exact logic:

• The queen only counts once you have already pocketed at least one coin of your own colour. Pot it too early and you will see “Pot one of your own coins before the queen”, and it goes back to the centre.
• After a valid queen pot you must cover it: pocket one of your own coins in the same shot or on your very next shot.
• If the cover shot fails, the queen returns to the centre and is back in play for both sides.
• Pocketing the queen and one of your coins together in a single shot counts as an immediate cover.

Fouls and penalties

• Striker in a pocket: this is a foul. Any of your coins pocketed on that shot come back out, a queen pocketed on that shot (or one still waiting for your cover) returns to the centre, and one coin you had already pocketed is placed back on the board as a penalty.
• Nothing to give back yet:if you foul before you have pocketed any coins, the penalty becomes a coin you owe. The scoreboard shows it as “Owes 1”, and the next own coin you pocket goes back to settle the debt.
• Last coin before the cover: you may not pocket your final coin while the queen is still uncovered. Doing so is a foul; that coin returns, you take a penalty, and a pending queen goes back.
• Finishing your opponent's colour for them:clearing the other side's last coin while the queen is still open is also a foul.

Winning a board and scoring

A board ends when the queen has been covered and one side has cleared its colour. The winner scores one point for every opponent coin still on the board, plus three points for the queen if the winner was the side that covered it. Following ICF practice, the queen bonus stops counting once the winner's match score has reached 22.

Against the computer or in Pass & Play you choose the match length: “1 board” or “First to 25”, with new boards racked until someone gets there. Online matches are a single board. Leaving a match before it ends counts as a loss.

Freestyle: the quicker, looser version

If you want a relaxed game, switch the rules to Freestyle. Nobody owns a colour; every coin scores for whoever pockets it: white is worth 20, black is worth 10 and the queen is worth 50 once it is covered. The highest total when the board is cleared wins. Two rules still apply: pocketing the striker is a foul, and the last coin cannot drop while the queen is still uncovered. Freestyle suits a mixed group where one person knows carrom well and the others are new to it, since nobody gets punished for hitting the “wrong” colour.

A computer opponent that keeps up with you

The computer has three difficulty levels: Easy, Medium and Pro. In the one-tap “Vs computer” mode it starts at Medium, moves up a level after you win two games in a row and moves down after you lose two in a row, and a badge shows the current opponent level. If you prefer to set the difficulty yourself, pick it on the setup screen under the other ways to play. Your home screen keeps your record: wins, losses, best streak and coins potted, and your results count toward the Carrom “Top players” board.

There are three board styles to choose from in settings, Royal, Midnight and Emerald, along with toggles for sound and vibration.

The Sarhny twist: the winner asks

Sarhny began as an app for honest, anonymous messages between friends, and the games carry a bit of that spirit. When an online carrom match ends, the winner gets to ask the loser one question, and the loser types an answer that the winner sees on the result screen. It turns the last shot into a small moment of honesty instead of a bare score. If you need ideas, our list of honest questions to ask friends is a good place to start. Keep the question kind; the point is to get a real answer, not to embarrass someone who just lost.

Tips for cleaner shots

• Start with coins sitting close to the pockets. Each of your own coins you sink buys another shot, so a run of easy pots is worth more than one spectacular one.
• Do not rush the queen. Get one of your colour down first, and only go for the queen when you can see an easy coin to cover it with afterwards.
• Use the rails. When the direct line is blocked, a rebound off the side cushion can reach a coin your opponent thinks is safe.
• Control your power. A full-strength shot scatters the board and raises the chance of the striker following a coin into the pocket, which costs you a coin.
• Watch the owed counter. If you are carrying a debt, remember that your next pot pays it off before it counts for you.
• Count before your last coin. If the queen is still out, leave your final coin alone and deal with the queen first.

Where to go next

The short version of these rules, plus the modes at a glance, lives on the Carrom page. If carrom is not your crowd's game, the Sarhny games hub lists every game in the Arena tab, our games guide explains how they fit together, and the Ludo guide covers invite codes and team play for a four-person table.