Running a tournament with friends takes one evening: you need a game, a handful of people, a bracket and private tables. One thing should be said up front. The official tournaments on tamashebi.cc, the ones listed on the tournaments page, are created by the site’s moderators and administrators. Players register for them, check in and play, but cannot create an official bracket of their own. Among friends you organise the tournament yourselves: the site gives you the tables, the rules and the scorekeeping, and you run the bracket. Here is how, step by step.
Choosing the format
The first decision is the game, the second is the match length. Shorter is better for one evening: with eight people and long matches, the final starts after midnight. Use the same length in every round — it is fairer that way.
- Nardi (Georgian backgammon) — matches to 1, 3, 5 or 7 points. For a tournament, 3 points is a good middle ground: one unlucky roll does not decide everything.
- Domino — to 75, 175, 255 or 355 points. 75 for a quick tournament, 175 for a serious one.
- Japanese Joker — two players, any target from 5 to 101 points; the standard target is 21.
- Classic Joker — four players, the standard 24 hands or the nines (ALL NINES). It is a long game, so it suits a small bracket.
Next, pick the shape. In a knockout the loser goes home, and half the field leaves every round. In a round robin everyone plays everyone and the most wins takes the title. The site’s official tournaments are knockouts only; among friends both work.
How many players
A knockout for a two-player game works best with a power of two: 4, 8, 16. In the site’s official brackets, domino, nardi and Japanese Joker tournaments take 8, 16 or 32 players, and Classic Joker takes 4, 16 or 64 — four sit at a table and one goes through to the next round. In a round robin the number of matches grows quickly: n players need n×(n−1)/2 matches.
- 4 players: 3 matches as a knockout (two semi-finals and a final), 6 as a round robin.
- 5 players: 4 knockout matches with three byes; 10 as a round robin.
- 6 players: 5 knockout matches with two byes; 15 as a round robin.
- 8 players: 7 knockout matches, 28 as a round robin — too many for one evening.
A round robin for four
If there are four of you and nobody should be out after the first game, a round robin fits into three rounds with two matches each. Round one: A plays B and C plays D; round two: A–C and B–D; round three: A–D and B–C. A win is one point, a loss is zero. If two players finish level, their head-to-head decides; if three are level, agree in advance — for example, a one-point nardi playoff. Write that rule in the group chat before you start, so nobody argues at the end. A sheet of paper works as a table: four rows, four columns and a result in each square.
The knockout bracket
Draw the bracket by lot. That is exactly what the site does in its own tournaments: with no earlier ranking to lean on, players are placed at random — an invented ranking would be worse than none. The bracket is written out in full, every round, before play starts, so nobody can change who meets whom once the games begin.
Example: six friends in an eight-slot bracket
- Write six names, shuffle them and list them in order — say Nika, Ana, Levan, Tamar, Giorgi, Mariam.
- An eight-slot bracket has four first-round pairs: Nika–Ana, Levan–Tamar, Giorgi–empty, Mariam–empty.
- Giorgi and Mariam face an empty slot, so they go through to the next round without playing. The site’s bracket works the same way: a player left alone at a slot advances.
- Semi-finals: the winner of Nika/Ana meets Giorgi, the winner of Levan/Tamar meets Mariam.
- Final: the two semi-final winners. Five matches in all.
If the same person should not get a bye twice, redraw before every tournament. And agree beforehand that whoever is not there on time loses their slot. In the site’s tournaments too, anyone who has not checked in before the start is left out of the bracket — otherwise a knockout with real people never finishes.
Making the final longer is a good idea. If the rounds of nardi went to 3 points, play the final to 5; if domino rounds went to 75, play the final to 175. That way the game decides the winner, not luck. If there is time, let the losing semi-finalists play for third place — everyone gets one more match and fewer people sit around waiting.
Prizes
In a friendly tournament the prize is symbolic and should stay that way: the winner’s name in the group chat, the right to pick the next game, or simply bragging rights until the next tournament. Do not play for money — tamashebi.cc is not for that. For an official tournament the administration may set a Domino Coin entry fee and prize pool, but that structure locks the moment the first player registers and cannot be changed afterwards. Withdraw before the bracket is drawn and your entry is refunded; anyone who never checked in is refunded too. Domino Coin is virtual and is never exchanged for money.
Technical preparation
- Decide who hosts: they open the tables, record the results and settle disputes.
- For nardi and Joker, create the table as “private” (with a password of at least 4 characters) or “friends only” — then only the host’s friends can see it. The host of a private domino table gets an invite link.
- Set the move timer. On nardi and Joker tables it can be anything from 10 to 120 seconds; 30 seconds suits a tournament well.
- Send the link and password to each pair through any messenger. Players can sit down as guests, too.
- Remember: a player can be in only one game at a time. Until their match is over, they cannot sit at another table.
- Write down each result as soon as the match ends — the server keeps the score, so there is nothing to argue about.
To enter one of the site’s official tournaments you need an account: open the tournaments page, register, and when check-in opens before the start, confirm that you are there. Tournament matches are casual, so they do not change your rating — only your progress through the bracket counts.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I create my own official tournament on the site?
- No. The tournaments on the tournaments page are created by the site’s moderators and administrators. With friends you organise your own tournament using private tables, and you run the bracket.
- What happens if my connection drops during a tournament match?
- The usual rules apply: you have a set time to come back, and the match continues from the same position. If the time runs out in a two-player game, the match counts as lost.
- Do tournament matches change my rating?
- No. Tournament matches are played in casual mode and have no effect on your rating.
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.