How to play Tavla.
Tavla is the Turkish name for backgammon, and the game is close to it: same setup, same moves, no doubling cube, and 2 points for a mars. As played here it adds two limits on what you may do in your home board.
Tavla 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. Tavla is played without it
- Hitting or pinning
- A lone checker that gets hit goes to the bar, with two limits in your home board
- Scoring
- 1 point, or 2 for a mars. There is no 3
Hit at home and stay. No cube, but a mars.
If you hit on a point in your home board, the checkers on that point can't leave it in that turn. In backgammon you could hit and run on to safety with the other die. Here you cover the hitter or leave it where it is.
With no cube, the only way to win more is a mars: your opponent has not borne off a single checker when you finish, and you score 2 instead of 1. One checker off saves that point.
Turkish Tavla 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. In a match, the last winner starts the next game.
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, but no hit-and-run at home. Landing on a lone checker sends it to the bar. After a hit on a point in your home board, no checker may leave that point for the rest of the turn.
Enter. A checker on the bar enters your opponent's home board before anything else moves.
Bear off without wasting pips. Once all fifteen are home you bear off. You may not walk a checker down and bear it off with a die that could have taken it off from where it stood. With a checker on the 3-point and 5-2, the 5 goes first.
Score. 1 point, or 2 for a mars. If either limit would leave you no play at all, it does not apply that turn.
Where we stand on the sources. The two limits come from the bkgm.com page, which rests on two Usenet posts. We did not find them in Turkish sources, and we did not find anything ruling them out either, so treat them as the rules of this table. If you learned Tavla in a coffee house, your house rules may well differ.
The same goes for rolling again after the opening die: Turkish Wikipedia only says the higher roll starts.
Tavla strategy
A few tips, not rules. Each follows from the limits above.
- Before you hit at home, look at your other die. If it can't cover, you are leaving that checker exposed, and it can't run away this turn.
- Prefer hits you can cover. With the two dice in hand, hit with one and cover with the other.
- Near the end of a lost game, get one checker off. That turns a 2 into a 1, and nothing else on the board matters as much.
- Bearing off, play the big number first when it takes a checker off. The rules insist on it anyway.
Where Tavla comes from
Tavla is the Turkish word for the game, and the same game is called Takhteh in Iran, says bkgm.com. The word goes back through Medieval Greek or possibly Arabic to the Latin tabula, according to English Wikipedia, which traces the tables family to the Roman game of that name.
A note on names: Tavli is the Greek set of three games, Portes, Plakoto and Fevga. Tavla is the Turkish game. The Tawula on this site is an old game, not today's Tavla.
Tavla questions
What is the Tavla setup?
The same as backgammon. Two checkers on the opponent's 1-point, five on their 12-point, three on your 8-point and five on your 6-point.
What is mars in Tavla?
A win where the loser has borne off nothing. It scores 2 points instead of 1. There is nothing higher.
Is Tavla the same as backgammon?
Nearly. There's no doubling cube and no 3-point win, the first turn is a fresh roll, and here two limits apply in the home board.
Are the hit-and-run and wasted pips limits real Tavla rules?
They are on bkgm.com, and the app enforces them. We could not confirm them in a Turkish source, so your local table's house rules may differ.
Can I play Tavla online for free?
Yes. Play Tavla 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 Tavla 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.