Start with the right question
A newcomer usually asks how to move a checker. Two people can set out the same board, use the same dice and still disagree on whether a piece can be hit. They might both be correct for their chosen variant. This is why an explanation of nard should begin with identifying the game, not memorizing a clever opening.
At Nard Online, the choices are Long Nard, Tavla Classic and Tavla Modern. Long Nard belongs to the family of long racing games often called nardy or uzun nərd. Tavla is the short backgammon game familiar in Turkish cafes and many other communities. Its Classic and Modern versions have the same movement and hitting rules. Modern adds the doubling cube; Classic does not. The rest of this guide treats those games separately whenever a shared instruction could cause a mistake.
There is no need to master them all on your first evening. Choose one, keep the relevant rules close and play a complete game. The aim is to finish knowing why a move was legal.
What you see when you open the board
The board has twenty-four narrow triangular spaces called points. Twelve sit on one side and twelve on the other; a central divider is called the bar. Points are grouped into four quarters of six. Each player has fifteen checkers of one colour and uses two ordinary six-sided dice. In both major variants the goal is to move your pieces into your own home quarter and remove them from play, a process called bearing off.
Point labels need a viewpoint. In the examples here, 24 is farthest from the mover's finish, 1 is closest, and a path such as 13/8 means moving five pips from the mover's 13-point to the 8-point. The physical direction of travel differs by game and by player. In Tavla, each player moves toward lower-numbered points from their own perspective, so their physical directions oppose one another. In Long Nard both players travel counter-clockwise around the physical board, but your 24 to 1 labels are relative to your route.
Do not copy the opposite player's visible numbers without checking orientation. A diagram with both sides numbered for one person can appear to contradict a diagram numbered independently for each.
The objective is a complete journey
Moving one checker into home is progress, but it does not win anything by itself. Every checker must complete its legal route. Your fifteen checkers must all be in your home board before you may bear off any of them. Then dice values determine which checkers you can remove. The first player to remove all fifteen wins that game.
Beginners sometimes race one favourite piece toward home and leave the rest scattered. The result is an attractive advanced checker and a terrible endgame. Think of the fifteen as a group needing transport. Early moves create routes, middle moves bring the group forward, and the final moves remove the pieces cleanly. That broad story applies to both variants, even though collisions and blocking differ sharply.
You can learn these stages while playing against a computer opponent. Nard Online has Easy, Medium and Hard offline bots, and offline bot matches do not require a connection. Hard is designed to look ahead and may play for mars. Start on Easy when recognizing legal moves still takes effort. A difficult opponent is useful later, once mistakes are understandable rather than mysterious.
Long Nard starts from the head
For Long Nard, place all fifteen checkers of one player on a single corner point known as the head. The other player does likewise at the diagonally opposite corner. From each player's perspective that starting stack is their 24-point, but both sets travel counter-clockwise around the shared board. The home quarter is the final six points of each player's route. This is quite unlike the scattered Tavla setup.
The first problem in Long Nard is getting checkers away from the head without leaving an unusable pile behind. Normally only one checker may leave the head on a turn, regardless of whether you roll two different numbers or doubles. The special opening exception covers first-turn rolls of 6 and 6, 4 and 4, or 3 and 3 when the opponent's positions would otherwise prevent the full legal roll. The rules explain when two checkers may leave under that exception; it is not permission to empty the head whenever doubles appear.
A practical way to remember the distinction is to separate taking a checker off the head from moving a checker already in circulation. The head limit controls the former. Once a checker has departed, subsequent dice can carry it farther if intermediate landings are legal. Read the full Long Nard Rules before relying on unusual opening combinations.
Your first Long Nard roll: 6 and 5
Imagine a normal early Long Nard position from your own viewpoint. Your fifteen checkers sit on point 24, the head, and points 18 and 13 are clear of opposing pieces. You roll 6 and 5. One legal plan is 24/18 with the six followed by 18/13 with the five, moving the same checker a total of eleven pips. You have taken only one checker away from the head, so the head limit is respected.
Now consider taking two different checkers directly from point 24, one six spaces and one five spaces. On an ordinary turn that violates the one-checker head restriction, even if each landing is clear. Rolling two dice does not entitle you to start two new pieces. This is the sort of simple error that can make two people argue despite agreeing about the dice.
Is your piece on 13 useful there, or might a shorter route build better coverage? No beginner needs an absolute opening ranking. Notice instead that a legal roll can have multiple sensible choices, and a good choice balances progress against your later access to the board.
The Long Nard surprise: no one gets hit
In Long Nard, a single checker owns its point for blocking purposes. An opposing checker may not land there. There is no hitting and no bar-reentry cycle. If your opponent places one checker on an entrance you wanted, you must find another legal route or perhaps lose the use of a die. This makes the game feel like managing traffic rather than fighting over exposed single pieces.
Suppose you need to move from your 12-point by four, but the intended 8-point belongs to your opponent. You cannot displace that checker. If a different checker can legally use the four, look for that move. If both dice can be played by some sequence, you must use them. When only one can be played and either value is individually possible, the higher value takes priority. The detailed limits matter more than a preference for a pretty-looking board.
It is possible to build long chains of occupied points, but there is a restriction on six consecutive blocked points if that formation would imprison all fifteen opposing checkers behind it. Five points in sequence are not automatically illegal. The six-point rule depends on the opponent's actual location, not on whether the pattern looks impressive.
A second Long Nard example: doubles
Double dice do not mean two moves. They create four uses of the same number when four legal uses are possible. Say a checker that has already left the head is on your 18-point and you roll 3 and 3. A legal progression might be 18/15, 15/12, 12/9, 9/6, provided all those landings are permitted and the board does not create an illegal six-point wall. One checker has just taken four separate steps.
In the first-turn head exception, 3 and 3 may allow a second checker to leave the head under the specified conditions. The exception does not mean that every pair of threes in every later turn allows two departures. That distinction separates a starting-position rule from an ongoing movement rule.
Watch how the game highlights legal moves. Nard Online provides legal-move highlighting and an undo option before confirming. Use undo to inspect a different sequence instead of guessing. When a highlighted route differs from the route you expected, ask which intermediate point or head restriction made the difference.
Tavla begins with pieces spread across the board
Tavla uses the standard short backgammon starting arrangement. From your perspective, place two checkers on point 24, five on point 13, three on point 8 and five on point 6. Your opponent mirrors the structure from the opposite direction. You move from 24 toward 1, and the opponent also moves toward their own 1, which is physically the reverse direction along the common board.
This difference is more than decorative. In Long Nard, both players circle the board the same way and cannot hit. In Tavla, players cross paths with the option to send an unprotected opposing checker to the bar. A single checker on a point is called a blot. Two or more of your checkers hold that point against an opposing landing. That basic fact explains much of the opening strategy.
For example, a 3 and 1 on the untouched Tavla setup allows 8/5 and 6/5, producing a secure pair on your 5-point. It is easy to see why such a move helps: you have not merely advanced pieces, you have created a useful landing that the opponent cannot occupy.
Tavla moves can hit a blot
Take a later Tavla position: you have a checker on your 8-point, an opposing single checker sits on your 5-point and you roll a three. If your path is otherwise legal, 8/5* hits that blot. The opposing checker is sent to the central bar. Your checker now occupies 5, but it may be alone and vulnerable to an opponent's return attack. Hitting changes the whole rhythm of a game, not only the count of spaces traveled.
A player with a checker on the bar must re-enter it into the opponent's home board before moving any other checker. The specific die gives the entry point, which must be open for entry. If the opponent holds both possible entry points with two or more checkers, that roll cannot re-enter there. You may have to pass; if one entry is available, it must be used in accordance with the dice rules.
Never explain this rule as a Long Nard rule. That game has no bar hits. It helps to learn the variants in separate sessions until you no longer confuse a safe single checker in Long Nard with a vulnerable blot in Tavla.
Worked Tavla turn: 6 and 1
On the standard untouched Tavla layout, a 6 and 1 can make your bar point using 13/7 and 8/7. Start with a checker on 13, move it six pips to 7, then take one from 8 and move it one pip to 7. Two checkers now hold the 7-point. This is a sound model for understanding two separate dice without asking one checker to travel seven spaces.
Compare a turn later in the game when you have one checker on the bar. The same 6 and 1 cannot simply repeat the opening recipe. Your first task is to re-enter from the bar, subject to the two possible entry numbers and the opponent's closed points. Only after the required re-entry may you use any remaining playable die with another piece. The priority changes your entire plan.
A beginner often wants to choose a move before examining all dice requirements. Reverse the order: identify compulsory movement, count the legal sequences, then compare their resulting positions. You will make fewer errors even before you know any advanced tactics.
What doubles actually mean
If you roll 4 and 4 in Tavla, the number four can be applied four times when legally possible. You might move four checkers four points each, one checker through four separate open landing points, or another combination. You cannot skip an available legal step simply because the sequence looks risky. The dice create obligations as well as opportunities.
Try a practice drill: before touching a checker on doubles, mark four boxes on paper and cross out one for each legal step you execute. A single long drag may conceal intermediate legality. Four boxes force you to remember that each step must work on the position left by the previous one.
The forced-move rule prevents convenient passing
Players do not ordinarily have the freedom to pass a legal roll. If both dice can be used, use both, even when that gives a position you dislike. If only one die can be used, play what is possible. When either die individually works but the combination cannot be completed, use the higher die. Doubles follow the same obligation to apply as many of the four steps as the position allows.
Suppose a Tavla checker can play either 6 or 2 from its current point, but there is no legal sequence that uses both dice. You cannot simply choose the two because it feels safer. The greater value governs that unusual situation. A comparable full-roll requirement appears in Long Nard, though the blocking constraints arise from different rules.
How to bear off without guessing
Once all fifteen of your checkers are in your home quarter, dice can remove them. A six removes a checker from point 6, a three removes a checker from point 3, and so forth. If no checker remains on the exact point, you may need to move a checker from a higher occupied point. An oversized die may remove one from your highest occupied point only when there is no checker on a higher point requiring that die to be played differently.
Picture your remaining checkers on points 5, 3 and 1 with no checker on 6. If you roll 6, you can bear off a checker from the 5-point because 5 is the highest occupied point. That shortcut is legal only under the usual bearing-off conditions. In Tavla, if an opponent hits a blot after you have begun bearing off, you must bring that checker back around and into home before removing more. Long Nard has no hits, so that specific interruption cannot happen there.
Bearing off is not a race to click the highest number automatically. Sometimes a legal move within home gives a tidier distribution for future rolls. First learn the exact rule, then learn endgame efficiency.
Mars is a result, not a risky wager
A normal win in the owner's Long Nard rules scores one. If the opponent has not borne off a single checker when you finish, that result is called mars and scores two. The Tavla game specification also confirms mars, or gammon, as a double result. Do not assume a separate triple result is part of Nard Online simply because some Western backgammon rulebooks describe it. That needs independent confirmation from the game owner.
Mars is not a reason to make reckless moves. New players sometimes try to keep an opponent helpless and forget the simpler objective of finishing. A clear chance to bear off and win can be more useful than a complicated attempt to create a double result. Nard Online's online coin tables use virtual entertainment coins with no cash value and no cash-out; mars is a game scoring term, not a monetary promise.
If you're playing your first full match, track two things in the ending: how many checkers you have removed, and whether your opponent has removed any. Those numbers explain the ordinary and mars outcomes without a lecture in probability.
The right way to learn the board on a screen
A physical board teaches you spacing with your hands. A digital board can teach the same thing with immediate feedback. Use legal-move highlighting to locate candidate landings, and use undo before confirming a move to study a different legal sequence. You will progress faster if you say the numbers aloud: “from 13 to 7 with six, then 8 to 7 with one.” That phrasing forces you to recognise where both dice went.
How to Play Nard: A Beginners Guide to Long Nard and Tavla: Android is available on Google Play, while the iPhone submission remains in Apple review.
Your first objective should be finishing a game with fewer rule surprises. After that, try against stronger bots or another player.
Practice session one: observe an entire Long Nard opening
Set up Long Nard with both stacks on their heads. Before rolling, trace your own counter-clockwise path until you arrive at your home quarter. Locate the other player's head and notice that their path is also counter-clockwise, not the mirror direction used in Tavla. This quiet observation avoids a surprising number of errors once checkers begin moving.
Now roll an ordinary pair such as 5 and 2. If the path is clear, you can take one checker from head and move it five followed by two, or two followed by five if those intermediate landings are legal. The starting piece travels seven pips in total. You do not take two new checkers off head. Repeat the exercise with 6 and 5, then compare how the intermediate points and final landing change your options.
Finally, inspect whether a chain of occupied points blocks an opponent. Five consecutive closed points and six consecutive closed points are not identical under the owner rules. Your task is not to build a perfect blockade. It is to observe how a single enemy checker closes one landing and how a long blockade may become illegal if it traps the whole opposing army.
Practice session two: watch the bar in Tavla
Begin from Tavla's familiar scattered starting position. Make a legal point-building move where possible, then play until one player leaves a blot exposed. If a legal hit becomes available, take note of three positions: where the hitter came from, where it lands and where the struck checker goes. The last of those is the bar, and it is the part that has no Long Nard equivalent.
On the struck player's next turn, do not examine the rest of the board first. Look only at possible entries from the bar. Identify whether each die points to an open entry, then apply the required entry sequence. If neither die offers an open entry, the player cannot move. If one opens a route, other moves wait until the bar is cleared according to the roll.
This drill teaches a strategic fact without pretending to be a deep strategy lesson. An isolated checker in Tavla can cost several turns if it is hit and cannot re-enter. That makes making safe points and checking opponent entry squares meaningful even when you are still memorising the rules.
Practice session three: finishing the game
A beginner who can play the middle game often stalls during bearing off. Arrange a hypothetical Long Nard home with a checker on 6, two on 4 and several on 2 and 1. Roll 6 and 4. You can remove from 6 and from 4, assuming there are no other constraints. Then change the layout so point 6 is empty but point 5 has a checker. A six can now bear off from 5 if no higher checker remains. The same number can have different legal effects depending on the position.
Next imagine Tavla with all your pieces home but a loose checker exposed on point 3. If the opponent still has a checker able to strike that blot, rushing every checker forward may create re-entry work. The aim is not simply to read the dice quickly, but to end without leaving avoidable vulnerability.
Repeat both scenarios with doubles. Speak each die use as a separate action and verify you have used every possible part of the roll. The finish is often where a small rule misunderstanding becomes a full game result.
Strategy comes after legal movement
Players sometimes search for the best nard opening before they know why two apparently identical boards have different legal moves. Keep the order simple. First identify your variant. Second locate your direction and home. Third apply the dice correctly. Fourth understand blocking, hits and bar entry where relevant. Only then begin studying whether a move gains timing, safety or useful board coverage.
For Long Nard, good questions concern getting checkers off the head, not wasting high rolls and building points without violating the six-point restriction. For Tavla, new strategic questions include protecting blots, hitting when it helps, making anchors and recognising when the position becomes a pure race. A race asks which player can remove their last checker first; contact introduces ways to disrupt that race.
Use Long Nard Strategy and Tavla Strategy when the move rules feel comfortable. Those guides discuss judgment among legal moves. They cannot replace learning what a legal move is.
Playing another person without needless arguments
At a kitchen table, agree on the game before placing pieces. “Let's play nard” can mean the long version to one person and short Tavla to another. Also agree on the rule source for unusual head departures, blocked points and scoring. Moving midgame from one rule tradition to another creates friction even when nobody intends to cheat.
Nard Online offers online Quick Match, private rooms using invite codes, joining a friend's table and the ability to watch live matches. There is optional voice chat, text chat and emoji reactions; you can mute or report a player. Online dice are rolled on the server, there is a turn clock with a time bank, and a disconnected match can be resumed on the same board. These features help organise a remote table, but they are not a substitute for fair behaviour.
You do not have to use voice chat to enjoy a match. A brief greeting, timely turns and a willingness to correct a mistaken assumption about the chosen variant make a better opponent than showing off a memorised trick.
Mistakes worth catching in your next match
The most damaging beginner mistake is mixing variants. In Long Nard you cannot hit a lone checker, and in Tavla that lone checker is vulnerable. Another common problem is ignoring whose perspective the point numbers use. From the mover's viewpoint, 24 to 1 is a useful learning convention, but the physical routes do not coincide across games.
Watch for the head rule in Long Nard, and do not assume that two dice authorize two head departures. Watch for a checker on the bar in Tavla, and do not move another piece before the required re-entry. On both boards, play every legal part of the roll, remember four uses on doubles, and wait until all your checkers are home before bearing off.
Finally, avoid treating a good result as proof of a good move. A risky blot may escape a hit because the opponent rolled poorly. A wasteful Long Nard move may not be punished immediately. Improving is mostly the habit of asking whether the same choice would be sensible if the next roll were less friendly.
A seven-game learning path
For your first game, choose Long Nard with the Easy bot and concentrate on finding your direction. In the second, track how many pieces leave the head and why. In the third, practise finishing the bear-off cleanly. Switch to Tavla Classic in the fourth game and learn the 2, 5, 3, 5 checker distribution. In game five, deliberately observe an opponent's blot and the bar after a hit. In game six, spend more time protecting useful points than rushing the race.
In game seven, play a full match without consulting the rule explanations unless a genuinely unfamiliar situation appears. Then review one moment you found confusing. You can progress at another pace, and your first three games need not be wins. The sequence matters because each exercise teaches a new decision without making the learner memorise a catalogue all at once.
When comfortable, try Tavla Modern and learn the cube as an additional decision about game points. Do not apply the cube to Classic or Long Nard. If you would rather practise with a friend, Pass & Play works on a single device. Use the main Play Nard Online guide to compare ways of playing.
Choose your next reading path
If your first game ended because you kept confusing board regions, the board knowledge guide and Nard glossary can help. Readers who want a focused definition of the ending should compare the Nard FAQ with the full Tavla rules. The variants guide separates the games discussed here from other related forms, rather than claiming that the app includes every variant.
Interested in the wider story of these games? Read the history of Nard after the practical lesson. If you want to know how rooms, bots and chat fit together, consult the Nard Online app guide and Play Nard Online. Those are different questions from movement rules. Keep them separate and you will find the right explanation faster.
Frequently asked questions
How many checkers does each person have?
Each player starts with fifteen checkers, giving thirty on the board. The important difference is their initial location. Long Nard begins with all fifteen together on the head; Tavla begins with groups on points 24, 13, 8 and 6 from the player's viewpoint.
Does a checker move from 24 toward 1?
In this guide, yes, from the viewpoint of the player whose move is being described. It is a notation convention rather than a claim that both players travel physically the same direction in Tavla. Tavla opponents move oppositely; Long Nard opponents both move counter-clockwise.
Can I hit a single checker in Long Nard?
No. One opposing checker closes its point to your landing. Long Nard has neither hitting nor a bar. If you want to practise hitting, choose Tavla Classic or Tavla Modern and learn how bar entry works after a checker is struck.
What happens when I roll doubles?
You have four uses of the number if all four are legal. Each application must reach a permitted point. Long Nard still applies its head and blocking restrictions, including its specific first-turn exception for certain doubles. Tavla instead considers points held by opposing checkers and possible hits.
Why can't I move the checker I want?
You may have a blocked destination, an illegal intermediate point, a compulsory higher die, or a head limit in Long Nard. In Tavla, you may have a checker waiting to enter from the bar. Check the variant and the required move order before assuming the game is wrong.
When can I start removing pieces?
Bearing off starts only after all fifteen of your own checkers are inside your home board. Exact dice remove checkers on matching points, with specific rules for higher unused values. A checker hit out of home in Tavla must travel back before bearing off can continue.
What is mars in nard?
Mars is a double-scoring result when the winner has removed all pieces but the loser has not removed any. Nard Online's owner rules specify it for Long Nard and Tavla. Details beyond that, including any separate triple-result category, need the game's own rules-owner confirmation.
Can I play without a connection?
Yes, Nard Online includes offline play against Easy, Medium and Hard bots. You can also use Pass & Play for two people sharing a device. Online opponent matching and online table communication are separate features that require an appropriate connection.
Is Tavla Modern easier for a beginner?
The checker movement is the same as Tavla Classic, but Modern adds decisions involving a doubling cube. A novice may find Classic simpler for a first lesson because it has one fewer system to understand. Move to Modern after hitting, bar entry and bearing off feel routine.
Can I learn directly in the browser?
The full browser game is available at /play/. The site route /play/ is the browser version itself, not an article redirect. You can also read How Long Nard works or the Tavla rules when a position needs explanation.
Is nard a game of skill or luck?
Dice introduce randomness, but move selection shapes how the board develops, which points remain open and how vulnerable your checkers become. The balance varies by position and game variant. Learn to judge your available moves rather than crediting every victory or loss solely to a roll.
What should I learn after the first game?
Choose the skill you struggled with. For Long Nard, study head movement and useful blocks. For Tavla, study protecting blots and getting off the bar. When those situations no longer cause confusion, try basic pip counting and bearing-off timing before memorising advanced openings.
Summary
Nard becomes much easier once you stop treating every version as the same game. Long Nard is a shared-direction race with a head rule and no hitting. Tavla is an opposing-direction game in which blots can be struck and the bar can delay a player. The dice system and finish share familiar principles, but a complete beginner should practise the games separately. Try a short session with the easier bot, review one doubtful move and play again. That is a better education than racing through a glossary without touching the board.