| Tavli | |
| Genre: | Board game, race game, tables game, dice game |
| Players: | 2 |
| Movement: | Portes and Plakoto: contrary; Fevga: parallel |
| Random Chance: | Medium (dice rolling) |
| Skills: | Strategy, tactics, counting, probability |
| Footnotes: | Compendium game of the tables family |
Tavli (Greek: Τάβλι), sometimes called Greek backgammon in English,[1] is the most popular way of playing tables games in Greece and Cyprus and is their national board game.[2] [3] Tavli is a compendium game for two players which comprises three different variants played in succession: Portes, Plakoto and Fevga. These are played in a cycle until one player reaches the target score - usually five or seven points.[4]
Tables games are an ancient family of race games, the best known modern example of which is backgammon. However, in Greece the most popular form of tables is Tavli, a word which is the equivalent of "tables games". Hence, this is not a single game, but a trio of tables games played to different rules and tactics. These are Portes, Plakoto and Fevga and they are played in that order until a player reaches the agreed target score. The aim in each game is to be the first player to bear off all 15 men or pieces.[4]
Portes is the game that resembles backgammon most closely. It is a hitting game in which the players may hit enemy blots off the board.[5] The starting layout and rules are as for backgammon except that:[6]
See main article: Plakoto. Plakoto is the second game in the sequence. It is a pinning game in which hitting is not permitted.[5] Key features include:[7]
Fevga is the third game in the series. It is a running game in which neither hitting nor pinning are permitted.[5] Thus single man 'makes the point'.[5] It is a game of parallel movement, both players moving in an anticlockwise direction.[8]
Other key features:[9]