By Valentin Updated rules variants tavli
Plakoto is the second game of Greek tavli: each player starts with all fifteen checkers on the farthest point of the opponent's home board, and the two sides move in opposite directions. A checker is never hit; it is pinned by an enemy checker landing on top of it, and it cannot move until that checker leaves.
Orion plays the international rules, the hitting game the Greeks call portes, and plakoto is not a mode in the app. If you want the game Orion plays, start there; if you have just been handed a tavli board in Athens or Thessaloniki, read on.
Every Orion guide to the international game is listed on the Learn page.
Greek readers will find the same game, written in Greek from the first line, in our plakoto guide in Greek.
How is the plakoto board set up?
Number the points from your own home board, 1 to 24. All fifteen of your checkers start on your 24 point, which is your opponent's 1 point, and all fifteen of theirs start on your 1 point. Each side has to bring its whole army around the board into its own home board and bear it off, so both players begin by marching straight through the other's starting corner.
Each player rolls one die and the higher number starts by rolling both dice. In later games of a match, the winner of the previous game goes first.
How do moves work?
Movement is the same as in backgammon. Each die is a separate move, or one checker can take both if the point in between is open. Doubles are played four times, and you must use the whole roll whenever a legal move allows it. A point is closed to you when it holds two or more enemy checkers.
How does pinning work in plakoto?
Land on a point with a single enemy checker and you do not hit it; you sit on it. The pinned checker stays exactly where it is and cannot move for as long as your checker remains on top. Your pinning checker also makes the point yours, so the opponent cannot land there either.
That is the whole difference from portes, and it changes everything. In the hitting game a checker that is sent back loses ground but rejoins the race. In plakoto a pinned checker loses time it can never get back, and a player with two or three checkers pinned deep in enemy territory is often simply lost.
What is the mother checker in plakoto?
The mother (mana in Greek) is the last of your checkers still on your starting point. If your opponent pins it there before it leaves, the game ends immediately and you lose two points.
There is one exception: the pin does not end the game if the pinning player still has checkers on their own starting point, since they are just as exposed. If both mothers end up pinned, the game is a tie. The practical lesson is that the last two checkers on your starting point should leave together, or at least not one at a time while enemy checkers are lurking within six points.
How do you bear off and score in plakoto?
The bear-off begins once all fifteen of your checkers are in your home board, and it works as in backgammon: a die removes a checker from the matching point, a higher roll must be moved inside the board if a checker sits on a higher point, and otherwise it removes the checker from the highest occupied point.
The first player to bear off all fifteen wins one point, or two points if the loser has not borne off a single checker. There is no doubling cube. In a tavli match the points from plakoto are added to those from portes and fevga until someone reaches the target.
What wins plakoto games?
- Escape early. Your starting stack is the most vulnerable thing on the board, and every checker that leaves it is one fewer that can be trapped.
- Pin early and pin deep. An enemy checker pinned in your home board, close to its own starting point, still has almost the whole board to travel once it is free.
- Do not leave a lone checker where the opponent has many builders. A blot in plakoto is not a risk of losing a few pips, it is a risk of losing that checker for most of the game.
- Watch the mother. Count how many enemy checkers could reach your starting point next roll before you move the second last checker away.
How is plakoto different from fevga and portes?
Portes hits and plakoto pins, but both have the two sides moving towards each other. Fevga, the third game, turns the board around: both players run in the same direction, there is no contact of any kind, and a single checker blocks a point.
Can I play plakoto in Orion?
No. Orion plays one game, international backgammon with hitting and the doubling cube, which is portes in its tournament form. In Greek-speaking markets the app is listed as Orion Τάβλι for that reason.
Practise portes in a real match: Orion is free on iPhone and Android, and every roll can be checked at orion.arthea.ai/verify.