Nard ( fa, نرد, also narde or nardshir; from pal,
nywʾlthšyl ''nēw-ardaxšīr'') is an historical Persian
tables game
Tables games are a class of board game that includes backgammon and which are played on a tables board, typically with two rows of 12 vertical markings called points. Players roll dice to determine the movement of pieces. Tables games are among ...
for two players that is sometimes considered ancestral to
backgammon
Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back nearly 5,000 years to the regions of Mesopotamia and Pe ...
. It is still played today, albeit in a different form. As in other tables games, the playing pieces are moved around a board according to rolls of
dice
Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing g ...
. It uses a standard
tables board
Tables games are a class of board game that includes backgammon and which are played on a tables board, typically with two rows of 12 vertical markings called points. Players roll dice to determine the movement of pieces. Tables games are among ...
, but has a different opening layout and rules of play from that of backgammon.
History
The game has been historically popular in
Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
,
Muslim countries
The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is practiced. I ...
, and among
Babylonian Jews. A common legend associates the game with the founder of the
Sassanian Dynasty,
Ardashir Ardeshir or Ardashir ( Persian: اردشیر; also spelled as Ardasher) is a Persian name popular in Iran and other Persian-speaking countries. Ardashir is the New Persian form of the Middle Persian name , which is ultimately from Old Iranian ''*Ar ...
. Indeed, the Persian name is a shortening of the older name , from Middle Persian ''nēw-ardaxšīr'' "brave Ardashir". The oldest known reference to the game is thought to be a passage in the
Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...
, although some claim it refers to the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
game
Kubeia. Another early reference is to be found in the Middle Persian romance ''Chatrang-namak'' (written between the 7th and 9th centuries) which attributes the invention of the game to
Bozorgmehr
Bozorgmehr-e Bokhtagan (Middle Persian: ''Wuzurgmihr ī Bōkhtagān''), also known as Burzmihr, Dadmihr and Dadburzmihr, was an Iranian sage and dignitary from the Karen family, who served as minister ('' wuzurg framadār'') of the Sasanian king ...
. The ''
Shahnameh
The ''Shahnameh'' or ''Shahnama'' ( fa, شاهنامه, Šāhnāme, lit=The Book of Kings, ) is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c. 977 and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,00 ...
'' (written around the year 1000) also attributes the invention to Bozorgmehr.
[''Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings'' by Abolqasem Ferdowsi, translated by Dick Davis, London: Penguin Books, 2007, Pp. 701-704.] Parlett refers to Nard as "proto-Backgammon".
[Parlett (2018), p. 123.]
By the 17th century the game was played in
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
under the name of ''nardi'', and by the 19th century it was being played by the
Kalmucks, who called it ''narr''. During most part of the 20th century both Georgia and Kalmucks were parts of
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
, so now the game is played in Russia and other ex-USSR countries under the name of
Nardy
Long Nardy (russian: Длинные нарды), also just Nardy, is a Russian tables game for two players. It is also played in Armenia as Long Nardi or Nardi. It probably originated in the historical Persian game of Nard. It requires a tables b ...
(нарды).
Rules
Common rules
The following rules apply to all the variants below:
* Players: the game is played by two players
* Equipment:
Tables board
Tables games are a class of board game that includes backgammon and which are played on a tables board, typically with two rows of 12 vertical markings called points. Players roll dice to determine the movement of pieces. Tables games are among ...
of 24
points or
spaces; 2 dice; 30
pieces or
men
A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chro ...
of 2 different designs (15 per player)
* First play: both players throw a
die
Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life.
Die may also refer to:
Games
* Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers
Manufacturing
* Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semicondu ...
to decide who plays first; the one with the higher die leads off
* Game turns: players takes turns at rolling both dice simultaneously
* Movement: players must always move their pieces forwards; which direction that is depends on the variant
* Moves:
** Two men may be moved forward on each turn, the first by the score on one die and the second by the score of the other die
** Alternatively one man may be moved forward based on the total dice score; but must rest on an intermediate point corresponding to the score on one of the dice
** Points or spaces may be
open
Open or OPEN may refer to:
Music
* Open (band), Australian pop/rock band
* The Open (band), English indie rock band
* ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969
* ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999
* ''Open'' (Cowboy Junkies album), 2001
* ''Open'' (YF ...
or
closed. A man may only be moved to an open one, the definition of which depends on the variant
*
Bearing off
The following is a glossary of terms used in tables games, essentially games played on a Backgammon-type board. Terms in this glossary should not be game-specific (e.g. specific to a single game like Backgammon or Acey-deucey), but applicable to ...
:
** Begins once all 15 pieces or men are in the final, or home, quadrant
** One man is removed from the point corresponding to the roll of each die i.e. if a man is on the 3rd point from the end, a 3 must be rolled to bear it off
** If there are no men on the point corresponding to a die roll, the player must make a legal move with a man further away
** If that is not possible, a man is borne off from the furthest point that is occupied.
Nardshir
![Nardshir (historical) - opening layout](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Nardshir_%28historical%29_-_opening_layout.png)
The earliest description of the rules for Nard, known then as Nardshir, dates to a 6th century AD booklet by the Persian author,
Bozorgmehr
Bozorgmehr-e Bokhtagan (Middle Persian: ''Wuzurgmihr ī Bōkhtagān''), also known as Burzmihr, Dadmihr and Dadburzmihr, was an Iranian sage and dignitary from the Karen family, who served as minister ('' wuzurg framadār'') of the Sasanian king ...
. These rules have been reconstructed as follows.
[''Nard - The Original Backgammon'']
at ancientgames.org. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
Players begin by setting up the board as shown. White is at the top and places on the home side, 3 men on the 6 and 8 points and 2 on the 3 and 7 points; on the opposing side he places 2 men on the Ace point and 3 on the 12 point. Black mirrors White's layout. Players move in ''opposite directions''; White moves clockwise and Black, anticlockwise.
[
In turn, each player throws the dice and moves men as described above. A man may not rest or move onto a closed point i.e. one occupied by two or more opposing men; however, a single enemy man may be ]hit
Hit means to strike someone or something.
Hit or HIT may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities
* Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super''
* Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...
and removed from the board. Men so removed, must be re-entered before any men already on the board are played. They are re-entered into the first quadrant (points 1 to 6). Players must move their men if they can; if unable to make a legal move with one of the dice, however, they forfeit that die roll. If unable to use either die, they forfeit both and miss a go.
Once all 15 men have reached the 4th, or home, quadrant, the player may begin to bear
Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...
them off the board and the first to do so is the winner.[
]
Todas Tablas
In Alfonso X
Alfonso X (also known as the Wise, es, el Sabio; 23 November 1221 – 4 April 1284) was King of Castile, León and Galicia from 30 May 1252 until his death in 1284. During the election of 1257, a dissident faction chose him to be king of Germ ...
's 13th century book of games, '' El Libro de los Juegos'', is a game called Todas Tablas, which many scholars equate to modern Backgammon although the description and opening layout are not the same. Some also equate it to Nard, thus assuming that Nard and Backgammon are the same game, a proposition challenged by Robet and others.[Robet (2011), p. 4.]
Nard
A modern version of Nard as played in the Near East
The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...
is described by Botermans. Robet suggests that this version could be closer to the original game than Todas Tablas.[Botermans (2008) as described and cited in Robet (2011), pp. 4–11.] The following is an overview of the rules:
The board comprises 24 'spaces' in four quadrants or tables. Each player stacks 15 men on the space at the top right in the opponent's home table
The following is a glossary of terms used in tables games, essentially games played on a Backgammon-type board. Terms in this glossary should not be game-specific (e.g. specific to a single game like Backgammon or Acey-deucey), but applicable to ...
and rolls a die to decide who will start.[
Players move their men in ''opposite'' directions. Rolling a ]doublet
Doublet is a word derived from the Latin ''duplus'', "twofold, twice as much",