Long narde online — play long backgammon for free

Long narde — also called long nardy, long backgammon or Russian backgammon — on a board that fits whatever you play on: a desktop, a tablet, a phone held upright or on its side, or the Android app. Free, with no download and no sign-up: a live opponent when players are online, a friend by invite link, or the Nardex engine any time.

Looking for backgammon? Backgammon online

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The game room on a desktop, 1440 × 900: board and move history side by side The game room on a phone held upright, 390 × 844: players and buttons above the board The game room on a phone on its side, 844 × 390: the board on one half, players, history and buttons on the other

Play narde online — long backgammon on any screen

Long narde is the main game on Nardex, and its game room is built to follow your screen instead of asking you to squeeze into it.

On a desktop, the move history stands beside the board. On a tablet held upright, you can put the history away and give the board the whole width. On a phone held upright, the board fills the screen with the players and the buttons above it; turn the phone on its side and the board takes one half, while the players, the history and the buttons take the other — a button on the board's edge swaps the two halves. In the Android app, Auto-rotate lets the board turn with the phone, or holds it the way you like.

Wherever you sit down, the lobby remembers your choices, so the next game is ready to go.

Prefer an app? There is one for Android.

The lobby: Narde, Online, Match to 5, Classic, Create & Get Invite Link, and the pending game with Find, Share and ✕

Long backgammon online in four taps

Every game follows the sports rules of the Russian Narde Federation — Russian Ministry of Sports order No. 347 — and starts from four choices in the lobby.

Pick Narde, the long game. Pick the opponent: AI bot for the Nardex engine, or Online for a person. Pick Match to: 1 for a single game, or 3, 5 or 7. Pick the clock: Blitz or Classic, Relaxed against the engine, Async — with days on the clock — against a person. Then press Play vs AI Bot, or Create & Get Invite Link: Find meets a live player when players are online, Share sends the link to a friend.

Board Skin opened from the game room: Board layout Auto or Compact, the seven skins, Wood picked and the board behind in Wood

Seven board skins, one tap away

The palette button in the game room's header — Change board skin — opens the board skins, each previewed in its own colours.

Classical, FNR, Wood, Green Felt, Dark Luxe, Marble and Granite: pick one and the board changes under your game. Above them sits Board layout — Compact, or Auto, which adds edge wells when there's room. Your pick is kept in this browser, so the next game opens on the same board.

The game room on a phone: the control row with Auto roll and Tap auto-move on, the speed button just pressed to Fast speed

Play at your own pace

A row of buttons in the game room sets how the game moves for you.

The speed button cycles Normal speed, Fast speed and Instant: Fast halves the checkers' flight, Instant quarters it, and the dice roll quicker too. Auto roll throws your dice as your turn begins. Tap auto-move plays a checker by the larger die the moment you tap it, so a plain move is one tap. Every switch is remembered for your next game.

The game room on a desktop: move 5 tapped in Move History, the board showing it, Back to live under the list

The move history, beside the board

Every move of the game is written down as you play, cube decisions included.

Tap any move in the history and the board shows the position after it; Back to live returns you to the game. On a desktop the history is always beside the board; on a tablet held upright, Show move history and Hide move history put it out or away; on a phone on its side it fills the other half, and the swap button decides which side the board stands on.

Your turn before the roll in a match to 5: the cube armed, its arrow reading CONFIRM The engine doubles: “I offer a double”, and the answering side gets Pass −2 and Take ×4

Raise the stake before you roll

In a match to 3, 5 or 7 the doubling cube sits by the board. It comes into play after the first move, and you offer a double before you roll.

Tap the cube: the arrow beside it reads double, then confirm — a second tap sends the offer, and while you hold it, Auto roll waits. Your opponent answers Take, and the game goes on at twice the stake, or Pass, and the game ends. The cube climbs as far as 64. In the Crawford game the cube wears «Craw ford» and nobody doubles.

Long narde online — FAQ

Is long narde free to play on Nardex?

Yes — free and without ads, in the browser and in the Android app. You start as a guest, with no sign-up, and can play the engine, a friend by link or other guests. A free account adds a Glicko-2 rating and a move-by-move review after each game: every move graded ok, doubtful, error or blunder, and PR for the game as a whole.

Can I play long narde against a real person right now?

Yes, when players are online: create a game with the Online opponent and press Find. Long narde has its own queue, so you meet long narde players only. If nobody is around, play the Nardex engine — for long narde it runs a separate neural network for each phase of the game, trained on 10+ million positions — or invite a friend by link.

How do I invite a friend to a long narde game?

Pick Narde in the lobby, choose the Online opponent, press “Create & Get Invite Link”, then “Share”, and send the link. Your friend opens it in a browser and joins without signing up; until then, the game waits in your list of games.

Can I play long narde on my phone?

Yes, upright or on its side: held upright, the board fills the screen; turned, the board takes one half and the players and the move history the other. On Android there is also an app that turns with the phone.

Which clock should I pick for long narde?

Blitz for a fast game, Classic for a regular one — both by the Russian Narde Federation’s rules. Against the engine there is also Relaxed; against a person, Async, with days on the clock.

Is long narde the same as nardy, nardi or long backgammon?

Narde, nardy, nardi and nard are spellings of one name, and it covers two games played on the same board. Long narde — also called long nardy, long backgammon or Russian narde — is the game on this page. Russian backgammon is another English name for long narde: a two-player game in which each side’s 15 checkers start stacked on one point, the head, both sides move counter-clockwise, and no checker is ever hit. Short narde is backgammon, and you can play backgammon online on Nardex too. Point by point: long narde vs backgammon.

I have never played long narde. Where do I start?

With the long narde rules — the whole game on one page. If you prefer small steps, the beginners’ guide goes from the setup to the score in nine. Then sit down against the engine: on the board, only legal moves light up.

Where to go next

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