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 diagonal teammates, espachurrar squashes, and the dreaded three-sixes penalty, and every roll swings between triumph and disaster.
How to Play Parchís
Two to four players each control four pieces that begin in the nest. On your turn you roll one die and move a single piece 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 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 your most recently moved piece on the open track is sent back to the nest as a penalty — pieces already in the home column are immune, so the penalty falls on your most advanced exposed runner instead. Win by getting all four of your pieces into the center goal before your opponents.
Parchís Tactics: Captures, Blockades, and the Three-Sixes Trap
Treat the 20-square capture bonus as the real engine of the game, not just the capture itself. Sending an opponent home is nice, but the free 20-square move you earn is what wins races — chain it onto a piece that is one good leap from its home-column entry, or use it to set up a second capture. The eight non-start safe zones (absolute squares 11, 16, 28, 33, 45, 50, 62, 67) sit in a regular alternating pattern around the track; learn to hop between them so your pieces rest where they cannot be hit while you wait for a 5 to deploy the rest.
Blockades are double-edged. Two of your own pieces on one square wall off the entire lane for every color, which is devastating when planted just ahead of an opponent's start square or in front of their home-column entry — they cannot pass it at all and must wait for you to lift the wall by moving a piece off. The catch is that the forced-break-on-6 rule binds the wall's owner: any 6 YOU roll must go toward breaking your own blockade if a legal break exists, and a blockade also stops your own pieces, so never park one where it strangles your own progress.
Respect the three-sixes penalty when you are tempted to keep chasing extra turns. A 6 grants another roll, but the third consecutive 6 banishes a piece back to the nest — a brutal loss if it strikes your lead runner deep on the track. The escape hatch: pieces already in the home column are immune and are skipped entirely, so a piece sitting safely up the final stretch can never be the one penalized; the hit lands on your most recently moved piece still out on the open track. When you are sitting on two 6s, prefer ferrying an exposed, advanced piece into the home column before the dice can punish it.
Manage tempo by position. When ahead, hug safe zones, avoid landing on contested squares within six of an enemy piece, and prioritize ferrying pieces into the home column where they are untouchable. When behind, play aggressively: deploy every piece you can (a spread of targets means more capture chances and the 20-square swings that come with them), and don't fear leaving pieces exposed if the upside is a capture that vaults you back into the race. Against the top AI level, expect it to actively count how many of your pieces could reach a square before moving there, so bait it by threatening two landing spots at once.
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.