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The flying rule in Nine Men's Morris
Down to three men, you stop sliding and start jumping. That one rule turns a lost-looking ending into a fight, and it catches out players who think they have already won.
The rule
When all your men have been placed and you have exactly three left on the board, you may move any one of them to any empty point on the board, lines or no lines. That is flying; some call it jumping or hopping, and in German it is springen. The other side keeps sliding along the lines until it too is down to three.
Two details trip people up. First, it only starts once placing is over. Three men on the board and more in your hand means you still place, as usual. Second, the count that loses the game is men on the board plus men in hand: you lose when that falls below three, not when your board looks thin.
Who plays with it
Not everyone. English Wikipedia notes that some rule sources present flying as the normal game, some as an optional variant, and some never mention it; it was added to give the side that is one man from defeat a way to fight back. Six Men's Morris has no flying at all. The Philippine game Lusalos uses the Nine Men's board and the same rules, minus flying.
In MorrisTalk, Nine Men's and Twelve Men's Morris fly at three men, and Six Men's does not. At a kitchen table, agree it before the first move. A game without flying is much harsher on the player who falls behind.
What a flyer can do
Two things, both strong. A flyer can block any threat, because every empty point is within reach. And a flyer can threaten from anywhere, because it does not have to walk to the line it wants.
The dangerous version of the second is the fork. Look at the picture: light has three men, two of them on the outer square, one at the top and one on the left side, and the third on the inner square. Flying the third man to the corner between the other two leaves the top row and the left column each one man short. Dark has to stop both and can stop neither: his men slide, and none of them stands next to either empty point.
That is why a flyer does not need many men to be dangerous. With two men placed sensibly and a third free to land anywhere, a fork is available far more often than it feels like it should be.
If you are the one with more men
You are ahead, so you may feel the game is over. It usually is not. Any single mill threat you make, the flyer fills by flying a man in. You need a fork of your own, two threats from one move, or you need the flyer to have no good moves left.
The double mill, the shuttle that decides most games, is weaker here than it looks. Say your capture leaves him on three. It is his turn, and he flies a man onto the point your shuttling man was about to step to. The shuttle is stuck, and a single repeated threat was all it had. For the capture that takes him from three to two you need two threats at once.
Some advice from the other side of the board. Before a capture that leaves him on three, look at what he can do as a flyer. If a fork is waiting, there may be a better capture, or a better moment to make it. And keep your own men placed so that most empty points have one of your men beside them: that way you can answer a threat by sliding in, and not only by hoping.
If you are the flyer
Hunt for the fork first. When none exists, make threats that force the other side to answer, and use the forced moves to rearrange his men into awkward spots. A flyer also cannot be blockaded: unless every point on the board is taken, a man flying from anywhere to anywhere always has a legal move. In the usual rules a side with no legal move loses, so that is a real difference.
If both sides have three, both fly, and the game tends to become a careful dance where neither side can afford a threat that can be parried and answered. Such games often end drawn. In MorrisTalk a draw follows if the same position appears three times or 50 moves pass with no man placed or taken.
See also: the full rules, the double mill, and the other board sizes in Six and Twelve Men's Morris.
Frequently asked questions
At how many men do you fly in Nine Men's Morris?
At three. Once all your men are placed and you have exactly three on the board, you may move any of them to any empty point.
Does the other player fly too?
Only when they are also down to three men. Until then they slide along the lines as usual.
Is flying an official rule?
It depends on the rule set. Sources treat it as part of the standard game, as an optional variant, or leave it out. MorrisTalk's Nine and Twelve Men's games use it; Six Men's does not.
Can you be blocked when you are flying?
Practically never. A man that may jump to any empty point always has a move unless the board is full.