Long narde rules
Long narde — длинные нарды — is the backgammon of Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Both players run the same way round the board from diagonally opposite heads, nothing is ever hit, and the whole game is a pure race under two famous restraints: one checker from the head per turn, and no six-point wall the opponent is not already past.
The starting position.
The starting position
All fifteen checkers start stacked on the head — your corner point; the two heads lie diagonally opposite. Both sides run the same way round the board towards their own home quarter, the final six points of their path.
The first roll
Each player rolls one die; the higher one starts and plays exactly those two numbers. A tie is rolled again — so the first turn of a game is never a double.
Rolling and moving
Two dice, exact numbers, always forward round the ring; a double is played four times. You must play every number you legally can, and the higher one when only one of the two fits.
One checker holds a point
A single checker owns its point: the opponent may neither land on it nor pass through it as part of a combined move. Nothing is ever hit, and there is no bar.
The head rule
Only one checker may leave the head per turn. Your very first turn is the one exception: 6-6, 4-4 and 3-3 release two — with exactly those three doubles a single checker would run into the opponent's head and stop halfway, so the roll would otherwise be half wasted.
Six in a row
You may not hold six points in a row unless at least one opposing checker is already ahead of the wall. Sealing all fifteen opposing checkers behind a block is forbidden.
Bearing off
Once all fifteen have reached your home quarter — the last six points of your path — you bear off: each number takes a checker from the point it names, and a number higher than your highest occupied point bears off from that one. Bearing off is never compulsory.
Scoring
One point for the win — two, the mars, if the loser has borne off nothing. There is no cube in long narde.
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