Tigadi (तिगड़ी) is a two-player board game from India, played on three concentric squares with 24 points. It is a variant of nine men’s morris — known in Hindi as नवकंकरी or नौ गोटी — with one important difference: the corner diagonals are real lines, so they carry both moves and captures. The name comes from the tigadi, a trio of your pieces on one line, which is what lets you capture.

How do you play Tigadi?

Each player has nine pieces, called gotis. You take turns placing them on any empty point until all eighteen are down. After that, you take turns sliding one goti to the next point along a drawn line. Whenever three of your gotis occupy one full line, you take an enemy goti off the board. Reduce your opponent to two gotis and you win.

A tigadi is three of one player’s gotis filling all three points of a single drawn line — the same idea as a mill in nine men’s morris. There are 20 such lines on this board: twelve around the three squares and eight along the spokes. Closing a tigadi captures exactly one enemy goti, no matter how many lines you complete at once.

Can a piece jump when you only have three left?

No. In Tigadi a goti always steps to the next intersection along a line — at nine pieces, at three, at two. There is no flying, hopping or jumping at any piece count. This is the biggest difference from the widely published nine men’s morris rules, where a player reduced to three pieces may move anywhere.

What happens if a player has no legal move?

They pass, and the turn goes back to their opponent. Being blocked is never a loss in Tigadi. Because the board is fully connected and every point has at least three neighbours, both players can never be stuck at the same time.

Is Tigadi the same as Nau Goti?

They are the same family of game. Nau goti means “nine pieces”, which is what each player starts with, and the game is also called नवकंकरी across parts of India. Elsewhere you will find it as nine men’s morris, mills, merels or morabaraba — though the diagonals and the no-jumping rule make this version distinct.

Can a tigadi capture more than once?

Yes, and this is how games are won. Move a goti out of a completed tigadi and back in on a later turn, and it counts again, capturing another enemy goti each time. Players call this a running tigadi, and setting one up is the strongest plan in the game.

Which pieces can I capture?

Any enemy goti that is not standing inside a completed tigadi of its own. Pieces inside an enemy tigadi are protected. If every one of your opponent’s gotis is inside a tigadi, that protection lapses and you may take any of them.

Can I play Tigadi online with a friend?

Yes. Create a room and you get a four-character code and a shareable link. Your friend opens the link on any device and you play in real time, with the server refereeing every move. You can also play on one device by passing it back and forth, or against the computer at three difficulty levels.

How does a game of Tigadi end in a draw?

Two ways. If the same position occurs three times with the same player to move, the game is drawn. So is a run of 100 turns with no capture at all. Both counters only start once every goti has been placed.

Nau Goti — The Hindi Name, and the Game in Hindi

The whole game exists in Hindi

Every part of this site is available in Hindi — the board, the rules, the coaching tips, the online rooms. Not a translated menu over an English game: the status line, the move log and the questions are all written in Hindi.

Use the language switch in the header, or go straight there. The move log reads in whichever language you are using, so two people can play the same game with one reading Hindi and the other English.

The words the game is played in

Most of this game’s vocabulary was already Hindi before anybody translated anything, which is why the interface keeps the words rather than replacing them.

Hindi	What it means
गोटी (goti)	A piece. Traditionally a pebble, a seed or a shell
तिगड़ी (tigadi)	A trio — three pieces on one line, the formation that captures
चाल (chaal)	A move. चाल चलना is to make one
बारी (baari)	Your turn
गोटी मारना (goti maarna)	To capture — literally to strike a piece
बिसात (bisaat)	The board
नौ गोटी (nau goti)	Nine pieces — the name of the game

The game on this site takes its name from that second word. A tigadi is what you are trying to build, so Tigadi is what it is called.

Nau Goti, Daadi, Navakankari — one game

Which name you use depends mostly on where you grew up. Nau Goti is the Hindi one; Daadi is recorded as Telugu and used all over India; Navakankari is the Sanskrit-derived name, with Navkakri in Gujarati and Saalu Mane Ata, Jodpi Ata or Char-Par in Kannada.

They describe the same nine pieces on the same three squares. English calls it nine men’s morris, which is the same literal naming habit arriving at the same place.

What is different about this version

Two things, and both are stated up front so nothing catches you out. The four corner diagonals are drawn and they count — a tigadi along one captures like any other, giving 20 winning lines instead of 16. And a player with no legal move passes rather than losing.

Also, and this is the rule people query most: a goti never jumps. Even down to your last three pieces you move one step along a line. Many published rule sets let a player with three pieces move anywhere; this one does not, at any point in the game.

Common questions

What does Nau Goti mean?

“Nine pieces” in Hindi — nau is nine and goti is a piece, traditionally a pebble or a seed. It is a plain description of what each player starts with.

Is the game available in Hindi?

Entirely. The board, rules, tips, move log and online rooms are all in Hindi, written as Hindi rather than translated word for word. Switch language in the header.

Why is the site called Tigadi rather than Nau Goti?

Because a tigadi — a trio on one line — is the thing you actually play for, and it is the moment the game turns. Nau Goti names the equipment; Tigadi names the point of it.

Nau Goti, and the game in Hindi