Backgammon around the World
Backgammon Names History
Backgammon history begins in the area of today's Middle East. But throughout the centuries, the game had spreaded worldwide. The game that was first called "Senet", "The Royal Game" and "Tabula" was re-born as "Back-Gammon" (little battle) in the 17th century England. However, the name backgammon didn't stick everywhere around the world.
Backgammon in Different Countries
Backgammon in Greece
Backgammon is called Tavli in Greece. The meaning of the term Tavli is board, and it refers to three different games played upon the board, usually in consecutive order: starting from Portes, continuing in Plakoto and ending the playing session with Fevga. All three Tavli games are played with one pair of dice (backgammon is traditionally played with 2 pairs of dice), without the doubling cube and without a triple game.
Portes rules are very similar to standard backgammon rules with one exception (on top of those common to all Tavli games) – in Portes, the winner of the opening roll, gets to roll again for his first turn.
Plakoto begins with each players' checkers placed on their 24-point (the opponent's 1-point). The players move their checkers in opposite direction around the board. In this Tavli game, instead of hitting, the opponent's single checker can be trapped until a player moves his/her checkers from the point.
Fevga is more similar to Narder, the Russian variation of backgammon than to western backgammon. On the starting position, the checkers are placed to the players' right farther point in diagonal opposite corners from one another. The players move their checkers around the board in the same direction. Hitting is not allowed, and a point can be occupied by one checker.
Backgammon in Turkey
The Turkish name for backgammon is Tavla. Besides the absence of the doubling cube and the triple game (=backgammon), in Tavli, as opposed to backgammon, a player cannot hit and run on his/her inner board nor waste pips when bearing off.
Tawula is another Turkish variation of backgammon, also popular in Egypt. The game of Tawula begins with two checkers placed on the players' 12-point and 24-point, and their object is to move around the board to get to the opposite side of the board and then bear them off.
Backgammon in France
Though official backgammon tournaments in France are played by standard backgammon rules, the French backgammon fans have their own version of the game called Tric-Trac. Tric Trac is played on a backgammon board with 15 checkers to every player. The movement of the checkers is the same as in backgammon, starting from each player's 1-point towards the 12-point. Apart from these, Tric-Trac and backgammon don't have much in common. The object of Tric-Trac is to score great number of points by playing different arrangement of checkers.
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