In Georgia nardi is more than a game. It belongs to courtyards, balconies and family evenings: the rattle of the dice, the click of the checkers and the neighbour's advice that nobody asked for. The game has a long history, and its traces can still be heard in the words spoken at the table. Below we tell only what is well established, and we keep firm dates and legends apart.
The great family of "tables"
Nardi belongs to an old family of board games that historians call "tables". These games share a board of twenty-four points, checkers that move according to the dice, and a goal: to bring the checkers from one end of the board to the other and bear them off. Members of this family were played in ancient Rome, in medieval Europe and in the Middle East; among them is the well-known Roman "tabula". Modern backgammon, Georgian short nardi, long nardi and Turkish tavla are branches of the same tree. That is why players from different countries recognise each other's boards at once: the rules differ, but the twenty-four points, the two dice and the race of the checkers towards home are the same everywhere.
Persian nard and the name
The word "nardi" comes from the Persian "nard", which is what the game is still called in Iran today. Persian tradition has a legend about how nardi was created: in it the game is presented as the invention of a Persian sage, as an answer to chess brought from India. This is legend, not documented history, but it shows how deeply nardi is rooted in Persian culture. In Georgia the game took hold under its Persian name, as it did across the whole South Caucasus. For centuries Georgia was in close contact with the Persian and Turkish worlds, and nowhere are the traces of those ties clearer than in the vocabulary of nardi: Georgian players still name the dice numbers in Persian, and many do not even know that "shashi" simply means "six".
Dice names from Persian
- yaki (1): Persian yek, "one".
- du (2): Persian do, "two".
- se (3): Persian se, "three".
- chari (4): Persian chahar, "four".
- panji (5): Persian panj, "five".
- shashi (6): Persian shesh, "six".
- Some of the names of the doubles, du-shashi, du-beshi, du-bara and dor-chari, have close equivalents in Turkish tavla too: these words are part of the region's shared language of play.
Nardi in the Georgian courtyard
In the old neighbourhoods of Tbilisi, in the villages of western Georgia and in the towns along the coast, a nardi board often sits in the courtyard, under a tree or on a balcony. Neighbours play, friends play, a grandfather plays his grandchild. Nardi almost always has an audience: someone helps count the checkers, someone else says out loud how they would have played. In many families nardi is handed down from generation to generation, both the wooden board and the tricks of the game. A child first learns the names of the dice, then how to count the checkers, and finally that leaving a lone checker is not worth it. Nardi is easy to learn, but its depth takes years to uncover; that is one of its secrets.
In the courtyard nardi was also played a little differently from place to place. Some tables had local rules that players agreed on before starting. tamashebi.cc uses one such rule, common at Georgian tables: a checker that hits an opposing checker in its own home stays on that point until the end of the move. Scoring also follows the custom of the Georgian table, with oini, mars and koks.
Why nardi has lasted for centuries
Nardi has outlived many other ancient games, and there are a few simple reasons. The first is the balance of luck and skill. Thanks to the dice even a beginner can win a single game, but over a long session the experienced player almost always comes out ahead, because they make better decisions. The second is speed: a game often ends in a few minutes, so nardi fits into a break, an after-dinner hour or a visit to the neighbours. The third is its social side: nardi is a game for two, but there is always talk, joking and arguing around it. And finally, the equipment is minimal: a board, thirty checkers and two dice, which fit in any home.
Sport nardi and championships
Nardi also exists in Georgia as an organised sport: there is a Georgian Sport Nardi Federation, and information about it can also be found on the website of the Ministry of Sport, sport.gov.ge. Nardi championships and tournaments are held, where players compete under uniform rules agreed in advance. For the exact calendar and conditions of entry it is best to contact the federation directly, as they change from year to year. One thing separates tournament play from courtyard nardi: the rules are set in advance and are the same for everyone, so there is nothing to argue about. That is exactly why it is worth knowing the rules precisely even when you play at home, for example when a win is mars and when it is koks.
Nardi on screen
Today people also play nardi on phones and computers, but the heart of the game has not changed: the same fifteen checkers, the same two dice and the same decisions, whether to hit or stay safe, whether to run or wait. On tamashebi.cc nardi is played in the browser, by Georgian rules, with the interface in your language, against a live opponent. The server rolls the dice, so both players see the same numbers, and on a phone the board lies in landscape, just like on a courtyard table. Playing online has its own advantages: the site enforces the rules itself, so there are no arguments about whether a move was allowed, and it keeps score automatically. If you are just learning nardi, it is a good way to master the rules exactly; if you have played for years, it lets you play even when there is no partner in sight in the courtyard. Nothing, of course, will replace a real wooden board and a game with the neighbour.
Frequently asked questions
- Where does the word "nardi" come from?
- From the Persian "nard". The names of the dice numbers come from Persian too: yaki, du, se, chari, panji, shashi.
- Do nardi and backgammon share the same origins?
- Yes. Both belong to the "tables" family. Georgian short nardi is very close to backgammon; the difference lies mainly in the scoring.
- Is there a nardi championship in Georgia?
- Yes. Georgia has a sport nardi federation, and championships and tournaments are held. Check exact dates and conditions with the federation.
- Can I play online the way people play in the courtyard?
- Yes. On tamashebi.cc nardi is played by Georgian rules, with oini, mars and koks, in the browser, with nothing to download.
- Why do the dice numbers have names from another language?
- Because the game came to Georgia from the Persian-speaking world and brought its names with it. Yaki, du, se, chari, panji and shashi are the Persian numbers one to six, and Georgian nardi has kept them to this day.
Nardi on tamashebi.cc is free to play. Some tables use Domino Coin, a virtual in-game coin: it is never money, cannot be bought or cashed out, and means nothing outside the site. The game is for fun and for skill. 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.