Tavli: Portes, Plakoto and Fevga
Tavli is what Greece calls backgammon. It is also the name of a match in which three different games take turns on the same board: Portes, Plakoto and Fevga. The first player to reach the target score, usually 5 or 7 points, wins the match.
How a tavli match works
- The three games rotate in a fixed order: Portes, then Plakoto, then Fevga, then Portes again, until someone reaches the target score.
- Every game is worth 1 point, or 2 if the loser has not borne off a single checker. There is no triple game and no doubling cube.
- Who starts: in the first game each player rolls one die; the higher roller picks up both dice and rolls again. After that, the winner of the previous game starts the next one.
- The goal never changes: bring all 15 checkers into your home board and bear them off first. Bearing off works as in backgammon.
Portes
Portes (Greek for "doors") is the game closest to backgammon: the same starting position, the same direction of play, and you hit single checkers and send them to the bar. What changes:
- The opening winner rolls both dice again, so the first move can be a double.
- A gammon counts 2 points and there is no backgammon (triple) win.
- No doubling cube.
- Wikipedia adds one more rule: no "hit-and-run" in your home board. As we read it, a checker that hits inside your home board may not carry on moving with the rest of the roll. Backgammon Galore does not mention this rule, and house rules differ, so treat it as a common local rule rather than a settled one.
Portes and Turkish tavla
Portes is almost the same game as Turkish tavla. Both re-roll the opening, count a gammon (in Turkish, mars) as 2 with no triple, play without the cube and let the last winner start. The one difference we found is the home-board hit-and-run rule above; the Turkish sources we read don't mention it. So if you want to practise Portes, play Tavla with the traditional rules.
Plakoto
In Plakoto nobody is ever hit. Instead you trap. Each player starts with all 15 checkers on their own 24-point (the opponent's 1-point) and the two sides move in opposite directions, as in backgammon.
- Pinning: land on a point holding one opposing checker and you pin it. It cannot move until your checker leaves.
- Blocks: a point is closed to your opponent if you have two or more checkers there, or one checker pinning one of theirs.
- The mother: the last checker left on your starting point. If it is pinned before it gets away, the game ends at once and you lose 2 points. Backgammon Galore adds that this doesn't apply while the pinning player still has checkers on their own starting point, and that the game is a draw if both mothers are pinned.
- Dice: doubles are played four times, and you must use both numbers when you can.
Plakoto is also played in Bulgaria, where it is called Tapa.
Fevga
Fevga is a pure blocking race. Each player starts with all 15 checkers on the rightmost point of the far side, so the two piles sit in diagonally opposite corners, and both players move the same way round the board, anticlockwise.
- No hitting and no pinning. A single checker holds a point: you may not land on any point where your opponent has a checker.
- First checker first: your first checker must pass your opponent's starting point before you may move any other checker.
- No full blockade: you may not block all six points of your starting quarter, and you may not trap every opposing checker behind a six-point wall. Wikipedia puts it more simply: after your move, your opponent must still have a legal move.
Can I play tavli on TavlArena?
Not as a full rotation yet: Plakoto and Fevga are not in the game. Portes is the exception, because Tavla with the traditional rules plays almost exactly like it.
Questions people ask
What are the three games of tavli?
Portes, which is close to backgammon; Plakoto, where you pin checkers instead of hitting them; and Fevga, where both sides race the same way and a single checker blocks a point.
How many points is a tavli match?
Usually 5 or 7. The games rotate Portes, Plakoto, Fevga until someone gets there; each game is worth 1 point, or 2 for a gammon.
What is the mother in Plakoto?
The last checker on your starting point. If your opponent pins it before it leaves, you lose the game and 2 points at once.
Is Portes the same as Turkish tavla?
Very nearly: same re-rolled opening, a gammon worth 2, no cube. Some Greek players add a rule against hit-and-run in the home board.
Sources
Read on 26 October 2026:
- English Wikipedia: Tavli for the rotation, the Portes rules and the Plakoto and Fevga setups.
- Backgammon Galore: Tavli (bkgm.com) for scoring, the cube and who starts each game.
- Backgammon Galore: Plakoto for pinning, blocks and the mother.
- Backgammon Galore: Fevga for the first-checker rule and the blocking limits.
Where the two sources differ, the page says so. Greek clubs and families also play house rules; if yours differ, tell us.