Play Parchís Online for Free
Parchís is the cross-shaped Spanish race game where four pieces per color sprint around a 68-square track and up a private seven-square home column to the center. It is Pachisi's Iberian cousin, but with sharper teeth: a single die, a roll of 5 to break a piece out of the nest, and a capture that rewards you with a 20-square bonus leap. Add blockades, espachurrar squashes, and the dreaded three-sixes penalty, and every roll swings between triumph and disaster.
How to Play Parchís
Two or four players each control four pieces that begin in the nest; in a two-player game the colors sit in opposite corners. On your turn you roll one die and move a single piece counter-clockwise around the 68-square outer track. A piece can only leave the nest onto its colored start square when you roll a 5; until then it stays put. After nearly a full lap your piece turns onto its own seven-square home column and must reach the center goal on an exact count — overshoot it and the piece simply does not move that turn.
Landing on a square holding one lone opponent piece captures it: that piece goes back to its nest and you immediately get to advance any one of your pieces 20 extra squares. Twelve squares are safe zones (the four colored starts plus eight more around the track) where pieces cannot be captured by a normal landing. Two of your own pieces on one square form a blockade that blocks everyone — even you — from passing or landing, while two pieces of different colors on a safe square form a bridge that others can pass but not land on. Bringing a piece home to the goal grants a 10-square bonus move.
Rolling a 6 gives you an extra roll, but it comes with rules: if all four of your pieces are already out of the nest, a 6 counts as 7 squares instead, and if you hold a blockade you must use the 6 to break it whenever a legal break exists. Roll three 6s in a row and the third 6 is not played: your turn ends, and the piece you moved most recently during those sixes is sent back to the nest as a penalty — pieces already in the home column are immune, so the penalty falls on the last piece you moved out on the open track instead, if it moved during those sixes. Win by getting all four of your pieces into the center goal before your opponents.
Playing Against the Computer
The computer looks only at the move in front of it: it scores each legal move once, without searching ahead, and plays its bonus moves the same way. Easy weighs three basic priorities (reaching the goal, capturing, leaving the nest) plus a little progress and a lot of randomness. Medium also values entering and climbing the home column, safe squares, progress, and forming a pair, and penalizes landing alone where an opponent piece could capture it with one roll. Hard scales that penalty by how many opposing pieces could make the capture, prefers moving a piece that is currently under threat, pushes harder to bring pieces out of the nest, and plays with almost no randomness.
Its danger check covers only ordinary die rolls, not the 20-square bonus a capture earns, so one capture can set up a second that it does not see coming.
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly is espachurrar and how do I trigger it?
Espachurrar ("to squash") happens when you roll a 5 to leave the nest and your start square already holds a bridge — your own piece stacked with one opponent piece. Moving out lands on that pair and captures the opponent's piece. Unlike a normal capture, espachurrar does not grant the 20-square bonus.
Why didn't my piece move when I rolled a high number near the goal?
The home column requires an exact count to reach the center. If your roll would carry the piece past the goal, it does not move at all — there is no bouncing back. You have to wait for a die roll that lands the piece precisely on the final square.
Does rolling a 6 always move me six squares?
Not always. If all four of your pieces are already out of the nest, a 6 is converted to a move of 7 squares instead. A 6 also grants an extra roll, and if you have a blockade on the board you must use the 6 to break it whenever a legal break exists.
What's the difference between a bridge and a blockade?
A blockade is two pieces of the SAME color on one square; it blocks everyone — including you — from passing through or landing on it. A bridge is two pieces of DIFFERENT colors sharing a safe square; other pieces may pass through it but cannot land on it, and the pieces there are protected from capture.
How many AI difficulty levels are there and how do they differ?
There are three: Easy plays basic priorities (goal, capture, deploy) with heavy random noise; Medium adds a full heuristic that values safe zones and the home column and penalizes landing where an opponent could reach within one die roll; Hard adds threat analysis that counts how many of your pieces could capture its target square and prefers moving its own exposed pieces to safety.