Dhayam Rules

Each player tries to bring all of their coins out of their home circle, round the board and into the Oval at the top. The first player to get every coin into the Oval wins.

• Two players — Player 1 starts from the left home circle, Player 2 from the right. Each picks a style of token to play with: terracotta, brass ball, lotus coin, pearl, emerald or conch.
• 12 coins each (families often play with 6, 8 or 10 for a shorter game). Coins, shells or tamarind seeds all work.
• Two Dayakattai — long four-sided brass sticks. Each shows 0, 1, 2 or 3 pips. Add the two sticks together; a double blank counts as 12. So every roll is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 12. A roll of 1 is called a Dhayam.

The board has 98 squares, numbered on the diagram. The frame (1–48) runs round the edge. Inside it is the cloth's M drawn upside down — two legs (49–55 and 67–73) whose diagonals (56–60 and 62–66) rise to the peak (61) — and a spine (74–78) running from the peak down to the frame, with a flank square either side of its foot (79 and 80). Below the frame, the neck (81–85) leads down to the bar (86–98) between the two home circles.

Squares marked with an X are safe: 1, 7, 13, 19, 25, 31, 37, 43, 49, 55, 61, 67, 73, 79, 80, 86, 92 and 98.

Both paths start at your end of the bar and climb the shared neck into the frame at 31. Player 1 then goes once round the frame clockwise and Player 2 anticlockwise, each finishing the loop beside 31. From there each player turns up past their flank square, climbs the spine to the peak, and runs down their own diagonal and up their own leg into the Oval.

1. Who starts: each player throws the sticks once; the higher throw plays first (a tie means both throw again). After that, players take turns: on your turn, roll both sticks.
2. Bringing a coin out: a Dhayam (1) lets you place a new coin from your home circle on your first square (86 for Player 1, 98 for Player 2). You may instead use the 1 to move a coin already on the board.
3. Moving: move one coin forward along your path by the number rolled. Your own coins can share a square.
4. You must play every value you can. When no remaining value can be used, your turn is over.

Rolling 1, 5, 6 or 12 — a number that brings a coin out, or a bonus number — means roll again straight away, before you move. The values pile up — a 6, then a 5, then a 12, then a 3, say — until a plain value comes. Then play every value you rolled, each with any coin you like and in any order: one coin can take several of them, or several coins one each. A value none of your coins can use is lost. There is no limit to the chain.

Cutting an opponent's coin, or bringing a coin into the Oval, earns you one extra roll — taken after you have played all your values, and only one however many cuts or finishes those moves made. That roll can start a new chain, and its moves can earn another.

If your coin lands exactly on a square holding an opponent's coin, you cut it — it goes back to its home circle and must come out again with a Dhayam. If several opponent coins are on that square, all of them are cut and your coin takes the square. A cut also earns an extra roll once you have played the rest of your values.

• Coins on X squares can't be cut — and while an opponent's coin stands on an X, you can't land there at all: a coin that would reach it must wait or use a different value. Your own coins may share an X. This matters most at 31, where both players enter the frame, at 92 in the middle of the bar, and at the peak (61).
• Every other shared square is open to cutting: the neck (81–85), the plain squares of the frame, and the spine (74–78) that both players climb on the way to the peak. The peak (61) and the flanks (79, 80) are X squares, so coins are safe there — and closed to the other side while occupied. Your own diagonal and leg are never shared.

You must cut at least one opponent coin before any of your coins may leave the frame. Until then, a coin that has gone round can go no further than the last square of its loop — 30 for Player 1, 32 for Player 2. It waits there (or wherever it is, if the roll would carry it past), and a roll it can't use is simply not available to it. Once you have cut, coins that finish the loop turn off onto your final path.

A coin needs the exact number to move from your leg into the Oval — from 49 (Player 1) or 73 (Player 2) that means a Dhayam. If a roll would take a coin past the Oval, that coin can't move. Bringing a coin into the Oval earns an extra roll, like a cut. The first player to bring all their coins into the Oval wins.

Every family has its own house rules. The online game lets you change the most common ones before you start:

• Coins per player: 6, 8, 10 or 12.
• Which rolls bring a coin out of the home circle (only a Dhayam by default).
• Which rolls let you roll again (5, 6 and 12 by default).
• Whether a cut is needed before leaving the frame.