How to play Portes.
Portes is the first of the three tavli games played in Greece and the one closest to backgammon. Same board, same start, same hitting. There is no cube, nothing scores 3, and your first turn can be a double.
Portes at a glance
- Checkers
- 15 a side
- Start, from your side
- 2 on the 24-point, 5 on the 13, 3 on the 8, 5 on the 6
- Direction
- Opposite: you go from 24 down to 1, your opponent from 1 up to 24
- Doubling cube
- No. What a game is worth never changes while you play it
- Hitting or pinning
- A lone checker that gets hit goes to the bar
- Scoring
- 1 point, or 2 if the loser has borne off nothing. There is no 3
The first die only says who rolls.
In backgammon the opening roll is your first move, so it can never be a double. In Portes each side rolls one die to see who starts, and that die is thrown away. The winner picks up both dice and rolls again.
So a game can open on 6-6, and that first turn can decide a lot before your opponent has moved. In a match, the winner of the last game simply starts the next one.
Portes rules, in order of play
Set up. As in backgammon: two on your opponent's 1-point, five on their 12-point, three on your 8-point, five on your 6-point.
Decide who starts. Each side rolls one die and the higher number starts, a tie rolling again. That player rolls both dice for the first turn. Doubles count, so the first turn can be four moves.
Move. Each die is its own move, to any point not held by two or more opposing checkers. Doubles play four times. Play both numbers if you can, and the higher one if only one will play.
Hit. Landing on a lone checker sends it to the bar. It enters your opponent's home board before anything else moves, and if you can enter only some, the rest of the turn is lost.
Bear off. Once all fifteen are in your home board you bear them off. The first side with none left wins.
Score. 1 point, or 2 if the loser has not borne off a single checker. A resignation and a game lost on the clock follow the same scale. In a match the winner starts the next game with no opening die.
Not everyone plays the first roll this way. bkgm.com has the winner roll again, while Greek Wikipedia says the players should agree on it first, so ask before you sit down at a real board. On yayay the winner always rolls again.
English Wikipedia's Tavli page adds that Portes has no hit-and-run in the home board. bkgm.com doesn't list that rule, and the app does not enforce it in Portes. It does in Tavla.
Portes strategy
A few tips, not rules. They follow from what the cube's absence and the 2-point ceiling change.
- Play on when you're behind. With no cube nobody can double you out, so a bad position still gets its chance to turn round.
- Without a backgammon to fear, leaving checkers back costs you less than it does in the Western game. The worst that can happen is 2 points.
- Getting a single checker off saves a point. If you're losing, that is often the real goal of the last few rolls.
- In a match, winning the game also wins the next start, and the starter moves first. A close game is worth a little extra risk.
Where Portes comes from
Portes is one of the three games of tavli, with Plakoto and Fevga. Greek players usually play them one after the other in a match of three, five or seven points, says bkgm.com. English Wikipedia gives five or seven as the usual target.
Neither source dates Portes itself. Tavli, the word for the set, comes from the Latin tabula, and the Roman game of that name is the oldest tables game anyone can identify. yayay offers Portes as a game of its own, not yet as part of a full tavli match.
Portes questions
What are the rules of Portes in tavli?
Backgammon's movement and hitting, from the same start, without a cube. The opening die only picks who rolls, and a win scores 1 or 2.
How is Portes different from backgammon?
The first turn is a fresh roll and can be a double, there's no doubling cube, and there's no backgammon, so nothing scores 3. In a match the winner starts the next game.
How is Portes different from Tavla?
Tavla adds two limits: you can't run on from a home-board hit, and you can't waste pips bearing off. Portes on yayay has neither.
Can I play Portes online for free?
Yes. Play Portes now starts a game against a bot at once, with no signup. You can also play a bot or with a friend from the door and set the match length there.
Is Portes rated here?
No. It is unrated and played without a stake, with no analysis afterwards, because GNU Backgammon can't read this game. It isn't in the rated queue, at tables or in tournaments.