Tavli: Greek Backgammon — Portes, Plakoto, Fevga

Q: What are the three games of tavli?

Portes (the backgammon-like short game), Plakoto (the pinning game, where lone checkers are trapped rather than hit) and Fevga (the no-contact long game in which both players move the same direction). They are played in rotation within a single match.

Q: What is the mother rule in Plakoto?

The last checker on your starting point is the mother. If it is pinned before leaving, you immediately lose 2 points — unless your opponent's mother is similarly exposed, in which case the game is a tie.

Q: How many points do you play tavli to?

Matches run to 3, 5 or 7 points, with 5 and 7 the common choices. Since double wins score 2, a five-point match can finish in as few as three games (2 + 2 + 1 = 5). ---

1. What Is Tavli?

Tavli is the Greek tables tradition: not a single game but a series of three games — Portes, Plakoto and Fevga — played in rotation within one match. It is a fixture of café and plateia (town-square) life in Greece and Cyprus, played quickly, sociably and without written rules, in much the same café setting as Turkish tavla.

Three structural features unite all three games:

No doubling cube is used in any of them.
Scoring is identical throughout: $1$ point for a plain win, $2$ points for a double win when the loser has borne off nothing.
There is no triple win of any kind.

Matches are played to 3, 5 or 7 points, with 5 and 7 the common targets. Because a double win is worth $2$ points, a match to five can be over in three games: $2 + 2 + 1 = 5$ . Players cycle through Portes, Plakoto and Fevga in order, game after game, until one player reaches the target.

2. Portes

Portes ("doors", after the made points) is the Greek short game and the closest of the three to Western backgammon. The starting position is identical to standard backgammon — the familiar $167$ -pip arrangement ( $2 \times 24 + 5 \times 13 + 3 \times 8 + 5 \times 6 = 167$ ) — and hitting, entering from the bar and bearing off work as on the backgammon rules page.

Portes starting position: the standard backgammon setup used in the first game of Greek tavli — Portes, the first game of the tavli rotation, uses the standard backgammon starting position.

The differences from standard backgammon:

The winner of the opening roll re-rolls both dice rather than playing the opening throw.
No doubling cube; wins are worth $1$ or $2$ points as above.
No triple win.

Some descriptions of Portes add the Turkish-style ban on hit-and-run inside one's own home board, while the bkgm.com Portes page omits it; treat this as regional variation and agree the rule before play.

3. Plakoto

Plakoto is the pinning game. Each player's fifteen checkers all start on the opponent's one-point, and the players move in opposite directions — so each side begins with a pip count of $15 \times 24 = 360$ .

There is no hitting. Instead, landing on a lone opposing checker traps (pins) it: the pinned checker cannot move until the pinning checker leaves, and while the pin lasts, the point is controlled by the pinning player.

The dramatic feature is the mother rule. The last checker remaining on your starting point is the mother. If your mother is pinned before it has left the starting point, you immediately lose the game as a double ( $2$ points) — unless your opponent's mother is similarly exposed to the same fate, in which case the game is a tie. Plakoto is the same game as Turkish hapis/esir tavla and Bulgarian Tapa; see the tavla page for the Turkish treatment.

4. Fevga

Fevga ("run!") is the Greek long game, a relative of Turkish uzun tavla and Russian long nardy. All fifteen checkers start on the rightmost point of the far side of the board, the two players' stacks occupying diagonally opposite corners, and both players move in the same anticlockwise (counterclockwise) direction.

The distinguishing rules:

No hitting — and a single checker controls a point, so a lone checker is a block, not a blot.
First-checker rule: your first checker must pass the opponent's starting point before any of your other checkers may move.
Anti-blocking rule: you may not maintain a six-point prime that completely fences in an opponent whose checkers are all collected behind it. A total blockade of a fully trapped opponent must be broken.

Because single checkers make points, Fevga strategy revolves around chains of blocking points rather than hitting duels, and the early race to get the first checker round is critical.

5. The Three Games Compared

	Portes	Plakoto	Fevga
Setup	Standard backgammon	All 15 on opponent's one-point	All 15 on far-right point, opposite corners
Directions	Opposite	Opposite	Same (anticlockwise)
Contact	Hitting, as backgammon	Pinning, no hitting	None; lone checker blocks
Signature rule	Opening-roll re-roll	Mother rule	First checker must pass opponent's start; no total six-prime fence
Scoring	$1$ / $2$ points	$1$ / $2$ points (mother loss $= 2$ )	$1$ / $2$ points
Cube	None	None	None

6. Tavli and the GamesGrid Platform

This encyclopedia documents tavli as part of GamesGrid's reference coverage of the world's tables traditions. Turkish tavla is a supported offering on the GamesGrid platform; platform support beyond standard backgammon will be announced with the launch.

Frequently asked questions about tavli

What are the three games of tavli?

Portes (the backgammon-like short game), Plakoto (the pinning game, where lone checkers are trapped rather than hit) and Fevga (the no-contact long game in which both players move the same direction). They are played in rotation within a single match.

Does tavli use a doubling cube?

No. None of the three games uses a cube. Every game is worth $1$ point, or $2$ points as a double win when the loser has borne off nothing, and there is no triple win.

What is the mother rule in Plakoto?

The last checker on your starting point is the mother. If it is pinned before leaving, you immediately lose $2$ points — unless your opponent's mother is similarly exposed, in which case the game is a tie.

How is Fevga different from backgammon?

Everything about contact changes: there is no hitting, one checker alone controls a point, both players move the same direction from diagonally opposite corners, your first checker must pass the opponent's starting point before the rest may move, and you may not keep a six-prime that completely fences in a fully trapped opponent.

How many points do you play tavli to?

Matches run to $3$ , $5$ or $7$ points, with $5$ and $7$ the common choices. Since double wins score $2$ , a five-point match can finish in as few as three games ( $2 + 2 + 1 = 5$ ).