Tavli

The three games

Portes is the closest to standard backgammon — a hitting game where a lone checker is sent to the bar. Plakoto replaces hitting with pinning: land on a single enemy checker and you trap it under yours until you choose to move off the point. Fevga is a no-hit blocking race, in which a single checker alone is enough to secure a point and shut the opponent out of it.

No doubling cube is used in Tavli; the skill is in adapting as the rules change beneath you.

How a match runs

The three are played one after another, over and over, until a player reaches the agreed match total — commonly five or seven points. Because each game rewards a different instinct, Tavli favours the all-rounder: you cannot lean on one favourite tactic, because the next game takes it away.

Playing the three games

Tavli rewards the all-rounder, because each of its three games asks for a different instinct. Portes is close to standard backgammon: make points, hit loose checkers, and race home — but with no doubling cube, so gammons are always worth chasing.

Plakoto is a pinning game. Landing on a lone enemy checker traps it under yours until you move off, so the key battle is over the pin: trap the opponent's back checker — often on your 1-point — while keeping your own advanced checker safe from being pinned in turn. A checker held under a pin cannot move at all, which makes a single well-placed pin decisive.

Fevga is a no-hit blocking race, where a single checker alone secures a point and shuts the opponent out of it. Here you build walls and manage a pure race, careful never to be blocked yourself. Win the match by adapting as the rules change beneath you from one game to the next.

Scoring the match

Tavli is scored as a match, not a single game, and that shapes how you play each of the three. Because there is no doubling cube, every point comes from the board itself — a plain win, or the double of a gammon — so gammons are always worth chasing, in Portes especially.

The three games are played in a fixed cycle, Portes then Plakoto then Fevga, repeated until a player reaches the agreed target, commonly five or seven points. Keep the running score in mind: when you are close to the target a simple win may be enough, while a player who trails should press for gammons to catch up quickly. Adapting your ambition to the score, game by game, is as much a part of Tavli as adapting to the three sets of rules.