Carrom is a tabletop game of Indian origin.

The game involves nine black/dark playing pieces and nine white/light playing pieces, a red queen, and a striker. Players take turns to play. A player wins by pocketing all of their pieces of chosen colour first. Neither player can win until one or another player has ‘covered the Queen”. To cover the Queen, a player must pocket one of their own pieces immediately after pocketing the Queen. If the Queen is pocketed but not covered, it is returned to the board. The player who pockets the Queen also receives bonus points. When striking, the striker must be placed on the board touching both baselines. Then, flick the striker at the piece you’d like to hit. Pass the striker to another player when you foul or fail to pocket a piece. If the striker pockets the Queen and/or one or more pieces of their own colour, the player gets to strike again. When a player fouls, the turn ends and there is a penalty: one pocketed pice is returned to the board.

Winning a game of Carrom requires communication. If you are playing with 4 people (which means partners are involved), you need to be able to communicate with your partner to cooperate and have a strategy to win the game.

Critical thinking is also involved in this game because you have to think about what angle is best, so you can flick your piece and it will be pocketed. Even if you can flick accurately, if the striker isn’t placed in a good position, it will make it much harder to pockket a piece.