Carrom is a tabletop game of Indian origin in which players flick discs, attempting to knock them to the corners of the board.

[2] One carrom board with its surface made of glass is still available in one of the palaces in Patiala, India.

UKCF organised national championships and league tournaments throughout the UK on annual basis.

[7] The United States Carrom Association reports on competitions in the US and Canada and has a player ranking list as of the last tournament.

The federation is supported by a large number of volunteers who regularly run events throughout Italy to teach and educate about the game.

The board and pieces can be bought in Europe, North America or Australia and are usually imported from India.

[9][10][11][12][13] The game is usually played on a square board made of plywood, with a pocket in each corner.

The International Carrom Federation says that the square playing surface must be between exactly 73.5 and 74 centimetres (28.9 and 29.1 in) along each side, that the edges be bounded by bumpers of wood, and the underside of each pocket be covered by a net capable of holding at least 10 carrom pieces.

In accordance with the ICF rules, pocketing the queen adds 3 points to the player's total score.

[16][17] In the UK, many players use a version of anti-set-off spray powder from the printing industry[citation needed] which has specific electrostatic properties with particles of 50 micrometres in diameter.

The winner of the toss has the option to change sides from white to black and give up the opening break.

The player taking the first shot (or break) plays white carrom men.

This means that, as in pool and snooker, it is possible for a player to pot all his/her pieces and cover the queen from the start of the game without the opponent being given the chance to shoot.

Crossing the diagonal lines on the board by coming in touch with it, pocketing the striker is a foul.

On a due, the player has to return one previously pocketed carrom man to the board.

A variant of the game called duboo is played mostly in Karachi, the largest city of Pakistan.

North American carrom, played primarily in Canada and the northern United States, is a variant developed around 1890 by Christian missionaries to Asia, who brought the game back with them.

Concerned with young boys loitering around pool halls (where gambling was common), an American Sunday school teacher named Henry L. Haskell altered the game for Western tastes.

Generally, instead of disks, carrom men (including the striker) are rings, originally of wood but today commercially made of light plastic.

In addition, as an alternative to using the fingers to flick the striker, some of the American carrom boards use miniature cue sticks.

While traditionally made boards vary widely, current commercially produced American carrom boards, by the Carrom Company of Michigan, are squares measuring 28 inches (71 cm) to a side, are printed with checkerboard and backgammon patterns, among others, and are sold with dice, skittles, etc.

The Hikone carrom board has larger pockets (not unlike those of pichenotte), the discs are arranged in a ring (also like in Pichette), each player is given twelve discs instead of nine, and the queen (known as the "jack") is pocketed last (similar to Eight-ball or Black ball).

Games similar to carrom include pichenotte, pitchnut, crokinole, Chapayev, novuss and button football.