Description
Chess and Nine Men’s Morris Gameboard.
A small Antique Chess and Nine Man Morris Gameboard, measuring 13-1/4″, with 1-1/2″ squares with a raised frame. The Nine Man Morris field is engraved on the obverse. The board was probably produced in the 1870s. The game board is sound, but very darkened with age and has some wear and minor scratching consistent with age. The chessboard side is designed to handle the smaller Staunton chessmen and some figural sets such as those Toriart sets produced by Anri . The Nine Man Morris obverse can be played with checkers up to 1-1/4″ in diameter. To view our complete line of modern and antique chessboards, use this link.
Nine Men’s Morris.
Nine Men’s (Man) Morris is a strategy board game for two players dating at least to the Roman Empire. The game is also known as nine-man morris, mill, mills, the mill game, merels, merrills, merelles, marelles, morelles, and ninepenny marl in English. The game has also been called cowboy checkers and is sometimes printed on the back of checkerboards. Nine Man Morris is a solved game, that is, a game whose optimal strategy has been calculated. It has been shown that with perfect play from both players, the game results in a draw.
The Latin word merellus means ‘game piece’. This is commonly corrupted in English to morris. Three main alternative variations of the game are Three, Six, and Twelve Man Morris. The rules for Nine Man Morris can be found here.
