Nardi is the most widely played board game in Georgia. Two players, fifteen checkers each, two dice and a board of twenty-four points: if you know backgammon, you already know most of it. What Georgians simply call "nardi" is short nardi, a close relative of international backgammon, with hitting and a bar. The real difference is in the scoring — a game is won as an oini, a mars or a koks — and in a few table customs. On tamashebi.cc this game is played online, in the browser, against a live opponent and for free.
What Georgian nardi is
- Two players, 15 checkers each, two dice, 24 points split into four quarters: your home, your yard, the opponent's yard and the opponent's home.
- Starting position, counted from your side: two checkers on point 24, five on 13, three on 8 and five on 6. The opponent mirrors it. On screen your home is always the bottom-right quarter.
- All checkers race in opposite directions, each side towards its own home, and the goal is to bring all fifteen home and bear them off before the opponent does.
- There is no doubling cube (the "davi"): the game is played the classic Georgian way, without it.
- Long nardi, a slower positional game with no hitting, is a different game; it is not offered on the site yet.
The rules in brief
- Each hand starts with each player rolling one die. The higher number starts and plays exactly those two dice. On a tie both roll again, so the very first move is never a double.
- After that, players take turns rolling two dice. Each die is one move: one checker can use both, or two checkers can use one each. A double is played four times.
- A checker may land on an empty point, on your own checkers, or on a point with a single opposing checker. A point held by two or more opposing checkers is closed: you cannot land there, but you can jump over it.
- If both dice can be played, you must play both. If only one can, it is played; if either could be played but not both together, the larger one is played. If neither can, the turn passes.
- Landing on a lone opposing checker hits it: it goes to the bar, the strip in the middle of the board. A player with a checker on the bar must bring it back into the opponent's home before moving anything else — a 1 (yak) enters on point 24, a 6 (shash) on point 19.
- The Georgian home rule used on the site: a checker that hits inside its own home stays on that point for the rest of the turn, unless there is no other way to play the dice.
- Once all your checkers are home and none is on the bar, you bear off: a die removes a checker from the point with its number; if that point is empty you must move a checker from a higher point; if nothing is higher, the furthest checker comes off.
Scoring: oini, mars and koks
- Oini (a single win) — 1 point: the loser had borne off at least one checker.
- Mars — 2 points: the loser had not borne off a single checker.
- Koks — 3 points: the loser had borne off nothing and still has a checker on the bar or in the winner's home.
- When you create a table you choose the match length: 1, 3, 5 or 7 points. A one-point match is a single hand; in a longer match a mars or a koks swings the score quickly.
How to play nardi on tamashebi.cc
- Open tamashebi.cc/nardi in any browser, on a phone or a computer. Nothing to download.
- You do not need to register to start: the site lets you play as a guest.
- Join a table that is waiting for a player, or create your own and choose how many points the match goes to. Tables are either free or played with the virtual Domino Coin.
- On your turn, tap the dice. The server rolls them, and both players see the same numbers at the same moment; the browser cannot influence them.
- Tap a checker and every point it can reach this turn lights up; tap a point to move there. Tapping the same checker a second time plays it with the larger die. When bearing off, a single tap is enough.
- When your turn is played out, the game holds it for two and a half seconds: the ↶ button takes back your last step, ✓ confirms the turn.
On a phone the board is played in landscape, filling the screen — on Android in full-screen mode. Each turn has a time limit; if it runs out, the server completes your move for you, within the rules. If your connection drops you have time to come back and carry on from where you were; if you do not return, or if you leave or resign, the game counts as lost.
Frequently asked questions
- Is nardi the same as backgammon?
- Very nearly. The board, the starting position, hitting and bearing off match international backgammon. Georgian nardi differs in its scoring (oini, mars and koks), in having no doubling cube, and in local rules such as a checker staying put after a hit in its own home.
- Is it really free?
- Yes. There are free tables and tables played with Domino Coin, a virtual coin that is not money and cannot be exchanged for money.
- Who rolls the dice?
- The server. The numbers are random and shown to both players at once; neither browser can affect them.
- Can I play on my phone?
- Yes. Turn the phone sideways: the board is played in landscape and fills the screen, full-screen on Android.
- I searched for "nardi onlain" or "nardi tamashi" — is this the same game?
- Yes. That is how Georgians type "nardi online" and "nardi game" in Latin letters. It is this game, played in the browser at tamashebi.cc/nardi.
- Play nardi online
- Georgian nardi rules, step by step
- Oini, mars and koks: how nardi is scored
- Long and short nardi
- Nardi strategy
- Nardi terms: a glossary
- The history of nardi
Every game on tamashebi.cc is free to play. Domino Coin is a virtual in-game coin: it is never money, cannot be bought or cashed out, and means nothing outside the site. The site is available in Georgian, English, Russian and Turkish.
The games on Tamashebi.cc are played in a Georgian-language interface. They are free and use a virtual coin, never real money.