Which board games can I play on the site?

Nardi and domino, both by Georgian rules. The site also has card games: Joker, Japanese Joker and Bura.

Not yet. Shashi is not on the site; we have articles on its rules and on playing it online.

Are Nardi and domino free?

Yes. Both are free and real money is not involved anywhere. Domino Coin is a virtual coin and cannot be exchanged for money.

Can I play Nardi against a bot?

There is no practice bot in Nardi yet — your opponent is always a person. Practice against a bot is available in domino.

Does it work on a phone?

Yes, in the browser — on Android and on iPhone, with no app.

Board Games Online — Nardi, Domino and Draughts

In Georgia board games belong to the courtyard, the balcony and the family table: a board or a box of tiles, two players and an onlooker with advice for every move. This page covers three of them — Nardi, domino and shashi (Georgian draughts). The first two can be played on Tamashebi.cc right now, by Georgian rules and for free; shashi is not on the site yet, and we say so plainly.

Nardi — dice and calculation

Nardi, Georgian backgammon, is a game for two: fifteen checkers each, a board of twenty-four points, and two dice that decide every move. The checkers travel towards home in opposite directions, a lone checker can be hit, and the winner is the first to bear all of them off. The site plays short nardi — with hitting, the bar, oini (one point), mars (two) and koks (three); matches run to 1, 3, 5 or 7 points. Your opponent is always a person — a stranger, or a friend you send a link to.

Domino — counting and memory

Georgian domino is clearly different from the international game. It uses 28 tiles, the two players get seven each, and the first double of a hand is the stavka, which opens on all four sides. You score when the open ends add up to a multiple of five, nobody may take the last two tiles of the boneyard, and on a blocked board — the riba — whoever holds less wins. Here you can play a live opponent or practise against a bot at three levels.

Shashi — pure skill

Shashi, which some people also call damka, is the only one of the three with no chance in it at all: no dice and no deal. Georgians traditionally play Russian draughts — an 8×8 board, 12 pieces each, compulsory capture, capturing backwards too, and a king (damka) that flies along the whole diagonal. Shashi cannot be played on Tamashebi.cc yet. The rules and tips are in our articles, and if you love a board and two players, Nardi is the closest thing.

What we know about the history — and what we do not

We cannot give exact dates for when these games reached Georgia: we know of no reliable source and would rather not invent one. The most dependable witness is the language. The Nardi names for the dice numbers — yaki, du, se, chari, panji, shashi — are Persian numerals, which points to the game’s eastern route. The domino words “stavka” and “riba”, on the other hand, came from Russian. In the twentieth century domino became one of the symbols of the courtyard while Nardi stayed the main game — for many people these are the most vivid memories.

Which one to choose

You want a quick, lively game with a little luck — Nardi: the dice make every game new, but over a long match experience wins.
You enjoy counting and memory — domino: you see only your own tiles and work out what your opponent may still hold.
You want pure strategy without chance — shashi: its rules are in the articles; on the site, try Nardi in the meantime.
You are still learning the rules and do not want to make mistakes in front of an opponent — domino against the bot, on the easy level.

Playing together, even from far away

Company was the heart of the courtyard game, and online it is not lost. Create a Nardi or domino table, send the link to a brother, a neighbour or a friend who lives in another city or another country, and you are at the board together again. A table can have a password so that no stranger sits down. The rules are the same for everyone and known in advance, so there is nothing to agree before the match — and the server keeps the score.

How to play here

Open the Nardi or domino page and pick an open table or create your own. No registration is needed: as a guest you play with a name and an avatar, while an account is needed for rating, tournaments and the friends list. Everything runs in the browser, phones included, and the tiles and dice are shuffled and thrown on the server with cryptographic randomness — the browser has no influence on them.

Frequently asked questions

Which board games can I play on the site?: Nardi and domino, both by Georgian rules. The site also has card games: Joker, Japanese Joker and Bura.
Can I play shashi?: Not yet. Shashi is not on the site; we have articles on its rules and on playing it online.
Are Nardi and domino free?: Yes. Both are free and real money is not involved anywhere. Domino Coin is a virtual coin and cannot be exchanged for money.
Can I play Nardi against a bot?: There is no practice bot in Nardi yet — your opponent is always a person. Practice against a bot is available in domino.
Does it work on a phone?: Yes, in the browser — on Android and on iPhone, with no app.

Domino Coin is a virtual in-game coin. It is not money: it cannot be bought, sold or exchanged for money, and it means nothing outside the site. There are no real-money stakes, top-ups or payments here.