Choose the game — international backgammon or long nardy — and play against the computer right here, free and without registration. The café’s three regulars sit across the board, from an easy-going beginner to a sharp-eyed aunt who counts every shot.
Backgammon is the short game: fifteen checkers each, spread out at the start and running towards each other. A lone checker can be hit and sent back to the bar, so every roll is a choice between playing safe and getting home fast.
Long nardy is the game of Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia: all fifteen start on the head, both sides travel the same way round and nobody is ever hit — a single checker holds a point, and the fight is about blocking. Both follow the official rules, and the dice are fair: every roll comes from one random generator that no bot can see into.
It is free and there is nothing to sign up for: open the page and the first roll is already on the board. No ads, no chips, no bets.
Yes. Pick an opponent: Uncle Joe plays like a beginner, Grumpy Gary chooses the best move by a careful count, Aunt Beatrice also looks one roll ahead at what you can throw back.
If you learned nardy in Russia, Ukraine, the Caucasus or Kazakhstan, it was most likely the long game: no hitting, all checkers from one corner. Everywhere else people usually mean backgammon, the short game with hitting and the bar. Both are one tap apart at the top of the board.
Not yet: for now you play the café’s regulars. A table you open for a friend with a link, like the one Durak has, is the next thing we are building.