Long Nard Starting Position: Set Up Both Heads Correctly
Learn the exact Long Nard board setup: fifteen checkers on each diagonal head, 24 numbered points, movement direction and opening examples.
The opening position is unusually simple
Before the first throw in Long Nard, there is no scattered army to memorize. Fifteen checkers of one color sit together on a single triangular point called the head. The other fifteen sit on the opponent's head in the diagonally opposite corner. That is the complete starting arrangement. It is simple to place on a real board but surprisingly easy to describe incorrectly if you borrow a diagram from short backgammon.
A traditional board has twenty-four narrow triangular points, twelve along each long side and a bar dividing the halves. Each player has fifteen checkers. Use contrasting colors so it is easy to see who controls a point. Two ordinary six-sided dice determine movement. The game is a race from the head around the board toward the player's own home; it is not a game of captures.
Number the points before showing a move
To discuss positions without a picture, this guide numbers the mover's route from 24 down to 1. Point 24 is that mover's head. Points 1 до 6 are their home board. A step forward reduces the mover's remaining point number. The opponent has an equivalent local viewpoint, with their own head as their 24 and their home as their 1 до 6. Consequently, a number printed on a shared board diagram is not automatically the same number for both players.
Both players move physically counterclockwise around the board in Long Nard. The starting heads are diagonally opposite. The visual route goes around the outside sequence of points, rather than jumping straight across the bar. A physical board can be rotated on a table and still be valid, but rotating a screenshot without relabeling it is a common source of confusion. Follow the direction of travel first; put number labels on second.
What to place, what to leave empty
Count fifteen checkers into a single stack on your head. Put your opponent's fifteen onto the diagonally opposite head. Leave every other point empty. The bar itself is not an extra starting point. Long Nard does not hit opposing checkers and therefore does not use the bar as a place to hold captured pieces. If a tutorial shows two checkers at 24, five at 13, three at 8 and five at 6, that is the familiar short backgammon starting arrangement, not Long Nard.
After both stacks are in place, count again. Fourteen checkers at the head and one loose checker near home is not an accepted alternative start in Nard Online Long Nard. Nor should a helpful player spread the checkers along several triangles to make the first move easier. The dense head is part of why opening choices matter. The gradual release of pieces creates the early traffic patterns of the game.
Why the two heads must be diagonally opposite
If both stacks share the same edge or are set into adjacent corners, the race becomes distorted before anyone rolls. The correct opposing corners make the two routes comparable. Think of two runners who each begin their lap half a circuit from the other. They travel the same physical way but aim for different home quarters. That image is more useful than trying to apply Tavla's opposite-direction rule to Long Nard.
For the player whose head is their 24-point, the opening route is 24, 23, 22 and onward toward 1. The opponent is moving counterclockwise as well, but their numbering is relative to their own starting stack. A board photograph should label which player owns which point. Without that caption, advice such as "move from 24 to 18" can be ambiguous across colors.
Test the setup using the first 6 and 5
Suppose you are moving and roll 6 and 5 after the board has been set correctly. From your head at 24, the route 24 to 18 to 13 uses the six and then the five, if the two stopping points are open. Another order, 24 to 19 to 13, uses the five before the six. Both illustrate how a single checker can use two dice when the intermediate landing is legal. You are not permitted simply to leap eleven spaces and ignore the point where one die's move ends.
The opening rule normally permits only one checker to leave the head during a turn. Once that checker has left, a different checker cannot casually join it just because the player still has a die to use. The special first-turn doubles rules for 6-6, 4-4 and 3-3 are specific exceptions under the product's blockage condition, not permission to empty the head whenever a double appears.
A single opposing checker changes the map
Long Nard has no hitting. A landing point occupied by even one opposing checker is closed. During the game, that can make the order of dice crucial. If your proposed first step lands on an opponent's checker, try the other legal order or another checker, if possible. You may pass over occupied points as the move traverses them, but you cannot finish an individual die's movement on a blocked point.
At the start, both players' stacks make two particularly important occupied points. Imagine drawing the opponent's stack in the wrong corner and then calculating the first turn. You will find a completely different set of legal routes. That is why a setup illustration should precede every opening lesson; its accuracy cannot be repaired by excellent strategy advice later.
What happens after the first release
Once an opening checker has moved, it does not have to remain alone. It may advance further on later turns while other checkers leave the head on subsequent turns. You may stack your own checkers together on a point. Placing a checker there also closes that point to your opponent. This is the basic engine of a blocking race: individual landing points become meaningful territory without a capture mechanic.
A player can create consecutive closed points as the board develops. A six-point block is subject to an additional restriction: it is illegal if it traps all fifteen opposing checkers. A first-day learner should first master the physical layout, then explore that rule with diagrams. A blockade diagram that leaves out the opponent's exact pieces cannot settle every legality question.
Checking the four quarters by hand
One convenient physical exercise is to divide the board into four groups of six points. Mark each quarter with a removable paper note rather than writing on the board. Point out the mover's head, then trace the route through the successive groups, finishing in points 6 through 1. This makes the home board visibly different from the bar. The home board is not a tray for captured checkers; it is the final six points of a legal route.
Repeat the exercise from the opponent's viewpoint. Their head again receives the local label 24, although it occupies another physical corner. If both players describe the same physical corner as their own 24, something has gone wrong with the labels. The easiest correction is to erase all labels and trace each travel direction before numbering either color.
Three setup mistakes that waste a whole lesson
The first mistake is copying the standard Tavla distribution. In Tavla Classic and Modern, each player begins with two checkers on 24, five on 13, three on 8 and five on 6, and moves in opposite directions. That game has hitting and bar entry. None of those properties creates a shortcut to placing Long Nard's fifteen-checker head.
The second mistake is treating the bar as a thirteenth point on each side. The twenty-four triangles are the playing points. The bar divides the board physically, but crossing the visual divide does not require a special roll, entry procedure or hit. When the diagram has twenty-five numbered locations because it counts the bar, its route is wrong.
The third mistake is declaring whichever side of the board is nearest you to be home without tracing the checker journey. In Long Nard, the home quarter is the final six points of each mover's full route. A player who begins with all checkers in home could bear off almost immediately, defeating the intended race.
An opening diagram is a promise to the reader
A useful illustration must show twenty-four points, each head with all fifteen checkers, a clear physical direction arrow, and which set of numbers belongs to which player. Do not put a moving checker halfway between points and present it as a legal finished move. Do not paint a checker on the bar. If the diagram shows an 11-pip move, label the legal intermediate stop as well as the destination.
Nard Online supports Long Nard, Tavla Classic and Tavla Modern. It also provides legal move highlighting, undo before confirmation and full rules in the app, making it possible to compare your drawn diagram with a guided game. The browser version is at /play/. Android is live on Google Play at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pixhelm.nardonline. The iPhone version remains in review, coming to iPhone without an announced date; other Android stores are still in review.
A short physical-board rehearsal
Before playing, take fifteen pieces of one color off the board and put them back on the head, counting aloud. Ask a friend to place the opposite set without looking at your work. Compare whether the corners are diagonal. Now point to six home triangles for each side. Finally roll one pair of dice and identify legal first stops without actually making the move. This ten-minute rehearsal catches most orientation errors before they become arguments.
For a second challenge, rotate the board one hundred eighty degrees and repeat. The checker placement should rotate with the board; the relationship between heads and routes must remain correct. You should be able to answer where your next checker lands without memorizing whether the wood grain runs left or right. A sound understanding survives changes of furniture, camera angle and checker color.
An orientation test without dice
Take a photo of the correctly prepared board from the first player's end, then a second photo from the other side. Ask two beginners to identify each head and home area using only those images. If their answers disagree, the photographs need clearer player labels. The pieces did not change locations, but the viewer's perspective did. This is precisely why educational diagrams should state whose point numbers are being used.
Try another test with three paper markers: one on the mover's 24, one on 18, and one on 13. State that the markers represent consecutive stops of a 6 and 5, not a three-checker opening formation. Remove the marker at 18 and ask whether the route is still fully documented. It is not. The intermediate stop is an essential part of the legality explanation.
Frequently asked questions
How many pieces start on each head?
Fifteen checkers of one color start stacked together on a single point, the head. The opposing fifteen occupy their own head in the diagonally opposite corner.
Are Long Nard pieces spread in a 2, 5, 3, 5 pattern?
No. That distribution belongs to short backgammon or Tavla. Long Nard begins with one complete stack for each player and all other points empty.
How many points does the board have?
Twenty-four triangular points, twelve on each long side. The central bar divides the halves, but it does not count as another playing point.
Where is the home area?
For the mover-based notation here, home consists of points 1 through 6. The head is point 24, and the checker follows its route forward toward home.
Do the two colors move in opposite directions?
No. In Long Nard both travel physically counterclockwise around the board. Opposite-direction movement is a feature of Tavla and short backgammon.
Can a checker begin on the bar?
No. All Long Nard checkers start on their respective heads. There is no hitting in this game, so the bar does not hold captured pieces.
What happens if one opening landing point is blocked?
Try a different legal order of dice or another legal option. A single opposing checker makes a landing point unavailable, including an intermediate stop of a two-die sequence.
May two pieces leave the head immediately?
Ordinarily only one leaves per turn. Particular first-turn 6-6, 4-4 and 3-3 blockage situations allow the documented exception. It is not unconditional.
How can I check a printed setup diagram?
Count fifteen checkers in each of two diagonal corners, locate all twenty-four triangles, and verify that the direction arrows follow the mover toward their own home.
How do I practice the starting position?
Set up both stacks yourself, identify each home, and trace a sample 6 and 5 with both intermediate landings. Compare with in-game legal-move highlighting.