Long Nardy (russian: Длинные нарды), also just Nardy, is a Russian

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. 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 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 ...

, 15

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 chrom ...

apiece and two

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 ...

Name

The game is usually just known as Nardy or Nardi in Russian, but called Long Nardy to distinguish it from

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 ...

which they call 'Short Nardy'. English sources sometimes mistranslate ''Nardy'' as "Backgammon", so the game is sometimes incorrectly called Long Backgammon. However, there are fundamental differences; for example, both players move in the same direction, whereas in Backgammon they move in opposing directions. There are also several apps known as Long Narde.

Rules

There are two players. The

is divided into two halves (left and right). Each player has 15

pieces Piece or Pieces (not to be confused with peace) may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Games * Piece (chess), pieces deployed on a chessboard for playing the game of chess * ''Pieces'' (video game), a 1994 puzzle game for the Super NES * P ...

, which are placed along the right-hand side in the opponent's side of the board. Each players has a different set of pieces, usually distinguished by being coloured black and white. There are two dice. Players roll the dice in turn. Each player may only move his or her own pieces.Akhundov (2012), pp. 1 ff.

Moves

The starting position of pieces on the board is called the "head". If the

points Point or points may refer to: Places * Point, Lewis, a peninsula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Point, Texas, a city in Rains County, Texas, United States * Point, the NE tip and a ferry terminal of Lismore, Inner Hebrides, Scotland * Point ...

along which the pieces move are numbered anticlockwise from 1 to 24 beginning at the lower right, then point 24 is White's head and point 12 is Black's head (see diagram). A

move Move may refer to: People *Daniil Move (born 1985), a Russian auto racing driver Brands and enterprises * Move (company), an online real estate company * Move (electronics store), a defunct Australian electronics retailer * Daihatsu Move Gov ...

from the head is called a "head move". On a single turn, only one piece can be taken from the head (except on the first throw). The first player, who also plays with the white pieces, is determined as follows: each player throws one die. The player who rolls the higher number is White and goes first. If they roll the same number, the dice are re-rolled. If the game consists of several rounds, then the colour of the pieces alternates, and the next round is started by the player who played the current round as Black. The player's moves are based on the roll of the two dice, which should be thrown from a special leather

dice cup Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating Statistical randomness, random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including List of dice game ...

. The dice must be rolled such that they end on one half of the board and lie flat on the surface. The dice must remain in the position in which they fell on the board until the end of the move. If a die falls into a different half of the board, or outside of it entirely, or comes to rest in an unstable position i.e. is ' cocked' (e.g. it rests on an edge, tilted against the side of the board or a piece), both dice must be re-rolled. After rolling the dice, the player must either move two pieces anticlockwise by as many points as there are pips on each of the dice, or make two moves with one piece. If both dice have the same number of pips, it is a

doublet Doublet is a word derived from the Latin ''duplus'', "twofold, twice as much",