By Valentin Updated rules variants tavli
Tavli is the Greek name for the backgammon board and for a match of three games played in turn: portes, plakoto and fevga. Portes is almost identical to international backgammon, while plakoto traps a lone checker by pinning it instead of hitting it, and fevga has no hitting or pinning at all.
Orion plays the international rules, which are portes with the doubling cube and the backgammon triple added, so the first of the three games is the one you already play in the app. Plakoto and fevga are not modes in Orion; this page explains them because no Greek tavli evening is complete without them.
Greek readers will find the rules of portes, written in Greek from the start, in our guide in Greek.
Every Orion guide to the international game is listed on the Learn page.
What does tavli mean?
The word means the board itself, and by extension the whole evening of play. Ask a Greek friend for a game of tavli and you are agreeing to a match in which portes, plakoto and fevga follow each other in that order, round after round, until someone reaches the target score. Being strong at one of the three is not enough, which is exactly why the format has lasted.
How is portes played?
Portes, from the Greek for doors, is the hitting game. The setup is the familiar one, two checkers on the far point, five on the midpoint, three on the eight point and five on the six point, the two sides move in opposite directions, and a lone checker that is hit has to start again, coming back in through the opponent's home board. It is the same game Turkish players call tavla, and our tavla rules page has their vocabulary.
Three habits separate portes from tournament backgammon. There is usually no cube at all. A win is double when the loser has not borne off a single checker, but there is no triple win, the backgammon of the international game. And the player who wins the opening throw normally rolls both dice again for the first move instead of playing the two single dice already on the table.
How is plakoto played?
In plakoto each player starts with all fifteen checkers on the opponent's one point, the farthest corner from home, and the two sides travel in opposite directions around the whole board. Nothing is ever hit. When you land on a lone enemy checker you pin it: your checker sits on top and the pinned one cannot move until you leave.
The game turns on the mother, the last checker left on a player's starting point. Pin it before it gets away and the game ends at once as a double win, unless your own mother is still at home too. The full plakoto rules, including that exception and the tie when both mothers are pinned, are on their own page.
How is fevga played?
Fevga, from the Greek verb for leaving, is the running game. Both players stack all fifteen checkers on one corner point, in diagonally opposite corners, and move in the same direction. There is no hitting and no pinning: a single checker owns its point and the opponent can never land on it.
Two rules shape the opening. You must carry your first checker past the opponent's starting point before you move any other, and you may not build a wall that blocks the opponent completely. The rest of fevga is a slow fight for space, and anyone who knows Russian long nardy will feel at home within a few rolls.
How is a tavli match scored?
Each game is worth one point, or two if the loser has borne off nothing, or if a plakoto mother is pinned. The games rotate portes, plakoto, fevga, portes again, and the match runs to an agreed target. Three, five and seven are the usual targets, and eleven is about as long as anyone plays.
The winner of each game rolls first in the next one, and for portes and plakoto also chooses which side of the board to play from.
Which of the three games is hardest?
Opinions differ, and that is part of the fun. Greek players often call portes the game with the most luck, because a single hit can turn it. Plakoto rewards planning, since a pinned checker stays pinned. Fevga is often described as the most strategic, a long positional squeeze with very little that the dice can undo in one roll.
Can I play tavli in Orion?
You can play portes, in its international form with the doubling cube, and in Greek-speaking markets the app is listed as Orion Τάβλι. Plakoto and fevga are not in the app, and a three-game tavli rotation is not a mode either.
Practise portes in a real match: Orion is free on iPhone and Android, and every roll can be checked at orion.arthea.ai/verify.