Live on App Store and Google Play · v3.6
El3abEvery café game, at one table.
Chess, ludo, domino, backgammon, Estimation and a trivia party for up to twelve. Play online, against a bot or with your friends, climb an Elo ladder for every game, and enter tournaments that hand out real prizes. Arabic first, and built in Cairo by AL-Arcade.
- 6games live today
- 5more in beta
- 110–190msfor a move to cross
- 4tournament formats
Six games live. Five on the way.
The games people already play in cafés and living rooms, with the rules they already argue about, written down properly.
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Chess شطرنج
Bullet, blitz, rapid and classical. Stockfish bots at every level, puzzles and game review.
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Ludo لودو
Online, against a bot, or passing one phone around the table.
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Domino دومينو
The café game, with partners or every player for themselves.
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Backgammon طاولة
Sheshbesh, Mahbousa, 31 and Ada, with the doubling cube.
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New · 7 Nov
Estimation استيميشن
Egypt’s four-player trick-taking game. The auction follows the Egyptian Bridge Federation’s rules.
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New · 7 Nov
Trivia Party حزّر فزّر
Ten official sets of 100 questions each, and sets you write for your own crowd.
In beta with invited testers
KonoColour-matching cards
LadderContract rummy
Bank of LuckEgypt’s property-trading board game
LiarBluff your way out
FashankParty roulette, no blood
Online, against a bot, or across the table.
Matchmaking finds an opponent in seconds and fills empty seats after a short wait. Private tables open with a code, a link or a QR.
Every game, one home screen
An opponent in seconds
Chess, with the clock running
Ludo for four
Domino, café rules
Backgammon with the cube
A ladder for every game
Chess puzzles
Daily tasks and chest
Boards, pieces and frames
Real tournaments, not a leaderboard with a trophy icon.
Any club, school or brand can run one. Players check in, the pairings make themselves, and the standings update the moment a game ends.
- SwissEveryone plays every round; pairings by score.
- KnockoutLive brackets, lose and you are out.
- ArenaPlay as many games as you can before the clock runs out.
- TeamsClubs and schools against each other.
- Check-in and waitlists
- Entry fees in coins, prizes for the top places
- Prizes held until fair-play checks clear
- Certificates anyone can verify
- Arbiters and a live board for organisers
DemoRound 1 of 5Chess · blitz 5+0
- 1Nour18420
- 2Youssef17900
- 3Hana17550
- 4Karim17010
- 5Laila16880
- 6Omar16400
- 7Salma16120
- 8Ziad15750
Pairings by score, no rematches
A move crosses in 110 to 190 ms.
In early November a move could take up to two seconds to reach the other phone. We rebuilt the realtime layer, and now a blitz game feels like the board is on the table between you.
- Dropped connection? You rejoin the same match.
- Clock ran out while you were away? Your seat is played until you return.
- A lite mode for older phones, and 120 Hz for new ones.
Pharaoh, Nefertiti and the Aragoz are on the shelf.
Eleven animated legends with their own reactions, over a hundred avatars and forty frames, all drawn from the region rather than borrowed from somewhere else.
Pharaoh
Nefertiti
Aragoz
Tanoura
The Moallem
Falconer
Baladi dancer
Dragon
Sardina
Amin Shorta
Alexandrian dancer
A woman and a man from each of 21 Arab countries.
From Morocco to Oman, every player can pick a face that looks like home. Levels run from 2 to 60, with a daily chest, tasks and achievements along the way.
Bring everyone to the table.
Clubs and organisations
A space for every club with its roster and events, and tournaments only its members can enter.
Watch any game
Spectating is open in every game since 12 November.
Friends, chat and voice notes
Groups, notifications, and a contacts finder that only ever sees hashed numbers.
A rating for every game
Elo per game, and per time control in chess. Your ludo luck never touches your chess rating.
Safe for the family
A child mode, and sponsor slots that are family-safe and never appear during play.
Arabic and English
Written in Arabic first, with English throughout for everyone else at the table.
El3ab right now: moving fast.
A product is only as alive as its last release. Here is what shipped in the first two weeks of November.
325commits between 1 and 15 November
798since the repository opened in May 2026
Version 3.0.1 goes live on the App Store, next to Google Play.
Estimation launches. Trivia Party joins the home screen.
A chess move now reaches the other phone in 110 to 190 ms, down from up to two seconds.
Version 3.6.0 for Android and iPhone.
Spectating opens in every game.
Ten trivia sets topped up to 100 questions each. The organiser console is rebuilt.
Put your brand on the table.
Sponsor a cup, run a tournament for your customers or your staff, or give a school its own league. Fourteen family-safe placements across eight screens, none of them during play, all managed from a 64-module organiser console with arbiters, moderation, analytics and an Audit Log.
Talk to us about a tournament- 14sponsor placements
- 8screens
- 0ads during play
- 64console modules
What El3ab says about the team that would build your system.
The same people build ERPs for a Ministry club and an eight-branch academy group. A game with thousands of moves a minute is a hard test, and these are the results.
Realtime that holds
110 to 190 ms per move, on phones and networks we do not control. The same work keeps a dashboard live for a whole branch network.
A back office of 64 modules
Tournaments, arbiters, players, the economy, sponsors, moderation, analytics and an Audit Log. That is an ERP with a crown on it.
Native apps on both stores
Android and iPhone builds with sign-in, push and in-app purchase, released every few days.
Speed you can count
325 commits in the first fifteen days of November. That is the pace we bring to your roadmap.
Questions players ask
What is El3ab?
El3ab (العب, “play”) is an Arabic-first app for the table games the Arab world plays: chess, ludo, domino, backgammon, Estimation and the Trivia Party game. You can play online, against bots or with friends, with an Elo rating for every game and real tournaments on top. It is built and run by AL-Arcade in Cairo.
Where can I play El3ab?
On iPhone from the App Store, on Android from Google Play, and in the browser at el3ab.org.
Can I play with my friends?
Yes. Challenge a friend, or open a private table and share its code, link or QR. Friends, chat, groups and voice notes are built in, and anyone can watch a game live.
Does El3ab run tournaments?
Yes: Swiss, knockout, arena and team tournaments, with check-in, waitlists, live brackets, prizes held until fair-play checks clear, and certificates anyone can verify.
What happens if my connection drops mid-game?
You rejoin the same match. If your clock runs out while you are away, the seat is played for you until you are back. There is also a lite mode for older phones.
Is El3ab suitable for children?
There is a child mode, and sponsor placements are family-safe and never shown during play.
Can a brand, club or school run its own tournament on El3ab?
Yes. Clubs get their own space, rosters and events, and sponsors get family-safe placements across the app. Send us a brief and we will set it up with you.
