Backgammon for Tea

The dice are sealed before the first roll. After the match the seed opens and every roll is checked. No coins, no ad during a game. Six regulars are waiting.

The tea is ordered and the board is open. Across the table sit the six regulars of a Turkish coffeehouse. There is no money and there are no coins on the table; you play over tea.

Honest dice, and the proof is on screen Every roll of a match is fixed and sealed before the first one is thrown. The seal stays on screen for the whole match. When the match ends the seed opens, and the dice log recomputes every roll from it and shows whether the seal holds. Your opponent's strength never comes from the dice: each regular has an error budget, written on screen, and the difficulty comes from that.

Six regulars Emre, the apprentice at the tea stove, hates leaving a checker open. Nermin Öğretmen builds points and waits. Cemal the taxi driver hits whatever he can. Suna the pharmacist never leaves a checker behind. Rıza Usta, who runs the place, plays a balanced game. Süreyya Bey at the corner table hardly makes a mistake. They all talk and call the dice; you can turn the voices off.

Same-dice rematch If you think the dice ran their way, ask for a rematch with the same dice. The seats swap: you get the rolls your opponent had in the first match.

Luck or moves After each game there is a short summary: what the dice gave each side, what the mistakes cost, your costliest move and what could have been played instead. The summary is an estimate, and the screen says so.

The game

• Turkish rules: a mars (gammon) counts two points, and there is no doubling cube.
• Matches to 3, 5 or 7 points.
• Drag a checker or tap it; undo a move, ask for a hint when you are stuck.
• Plays offline. No account.
• iPhone and iPad. On iPad it plays in portrait and landscape.
• Turkish and English.

Ads An ad appears only after a match has ended, never while you are playing. The same-dice rematch is never behind an ad. A one-time purchase removes the ads between matches. No coins, no lives, no energy and no waiting.