Rules
Tavla (tavli, tabla) is a family of games on one board. Each tradition plays its own set of games, one after another, in a match. These are the rules Zar Club plays.
Common rules
- Two players, 15 checkers each, on a board of 24 points. Each game has its own starting position (pictures below).
- You move by the two dice: each die moves one checker by that number, and one checker may use both. You must play both dice when you can; if only one can be played, play the higher one when possible.
- Doubles are played four times: 3-3 is four moves of 3.
- First game of a match: each player rolls one die; ties roll again. The higher die starts and then rolls both dice fresh.
- Every later game is started by the winner of the previous one.
- You bear off once all 15 of your checkers are in your home board: the exact number takes a checker off, a higher number only from your highest occupied point.
- A win scores 1 point; a mars (the loser has borne off no checker) scores 2. There is no doubling cube and no triple score. Resigning concedes 2 if you have borne off none, otherwise 1.
By set
A set is the order of games in a match. After the last game of a set the order starts again, until someone reaches the match length.
Macedonian set
Macedonian setFirst → Second → Third (Прва → Втора → Трета) = Portes → Gul Bara → Plakoto
The games are called by their order: First, Second, Third. Matches to 3, 5 or 7 points (5 by default). A pinned checker does not stop you bearing off the others.
Play vs the bot: Macedonian set →Bulgarian set
Bulgarian setPrava → Gyulbara → Tapa (Права → Гюлбара → Тапа) = Portes → Gul Bara → Plakoto
Prava, Gyulbara and Tapa, in that order. Matches to 3, 5 or 7 points (5 by default). A pinned checker does not stop you bearing off the others.
Play vs the bot: Bulgarian set →Greek set
Greek setPortes → Plakoto → Fevga (Πόρτες → Πλακωτό → Φεύγα)
Matches to 3, 5 or 7 points (5 by default). In Plakoto, bearing off is suspended while one of your checkers is pinned.
Play vs the bot: Greek set →Turkish set
Turkish setTavla = Portes
One game only — the same game as Portes — played as a match, usually to 5 points (3, 5 or 7 here).
Play vs the bot: Turkish set →The games
Portes
Macedonian set: First · Bulgarian set: Prava · Greek set: Portes · Turkish set: Tavla
- Start: 2 checkers on your 24-point, 5 on the 13, 3 on the 8 and 5 on the 6. The players move in opposite directions.
- Landing on a single opposing checker hits it: it goes to the bar.
- A checker on the bar must come back in, in the opponent’s home board, before you move anything else.
- A point with two or more opposing checkers is closed to you.
- Bear off all 15 first to win.
Gul Bara
Macedonian set: Second · Bulgarian set: Gyulbara
- Start: all 15 checkers on your first point, in diagonally opposite corners. Both players move the same way round the board.
- No hitting: a single checker holds its point, and the opponent can never land there.
- From each player’s own 4th roll, doubles cascade: 2-2 plays four 2s, then four 3s, four 4s, four 5s and four 6s, as far as they can be played. Your first three rolls play doubles normally.
- The cascade goes in order: when the current number cannot be played, the rest of it passes.
- Passed dice: any number you cannot play passes to your opponent, who plays what they can of it before their own roll. What neither can play is lost.
Plakoto
Macedonian set: Third · Bulgarian set: Tapa · Greek set: Plakoto
- Start: all 15 checkers on your starting point, in opposite corners. The players move in opposite directions.
- No hitting: landing on a single opposing checker pins it. It cannot move while one of your checkers stays on top of it.
- Your mother is your last checker on your starting point. If your mother is pinned, the pinner wins a mars (2 points) as soon as the pinner’s own starting point is empty — at once if it already is.
- If both mothers are pinned, the game is a draw: 0–0. The next game of the set follows, with a fresh opening roll.
- Bearing off while one of your checkers is pinned: in the Macedonian and Bulgarian sets you keep bearing off the others; in the Greek set bearing off waits until the pin is lifted.
Fevga
Greek set: Fevga — its third game
- Start: all 15 checkers on your first point, in diagonally opposite corners. Both players move the same way round the board.
- No hitting: a single checker closes its point to the opponent.
- First checker: until one of your checkers has passed the opponent’s starting point, only that one checker may leave your first point.
- Doubles are four ordinary moves (no cascade). A number you cannot play is lost.
- No six-point wall: you may not end your turn holding all six points of your starting quarter while an opposing checker is still behind them, nor all six points just in front of the opponent’s starting point while any checker is still on it.
- Where you can, your move must leave the opponent at least one legal move.
Fair dice
- Every roll is a fresh draw from a cryptographically secure random generator, and every number from 1 to 6 is exactly equally likely.
- Online, the dice are rolled on our servers. Your device learns a roll only when it is made — never in advance.
- Against the bot, the dice are rolled the same way, in your browser.
- Dice are never adjusted for anyone: not for rating, not for new players, not for the bot.
- The bot gets the same dice as you and does not know the next roll: it weighs all 21 possible rolls.