Plakoto is a tables game

Tables (board game)

Tables is a general name given to a class of board games similar to backgammon, played on a board with two rows of 12 vertical markings called "points". Players roll dice to determine the movement of pieces...

 popular in Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

. The object of Plakoto is for the player to bring all their checkers around to their own home board and then bear them off. The player who bears off all of his checkers first wins the game. This game is usually played along with two other variants, Fevga and Portes (similar to backgammon

Backgammon

Backgammon is one of the oldest board games for two players. The playing pieces are moved according to the roll of dice, and players win by removing all of their pieces from the board. There are many variants of backgammon, most of which share common traits...

). Together these three games are called Tavli, and are played in sequence usually one after the other. They have matches of three, five or seven points. A Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

n version of Plakoto is known as Tapa

Tapa (game)

Tapa is a version of Backgammon played in Bulgaria and Macedonia. It is also played in Greece, where it is known as Plakoto. The word tapa means bottle cap....

.And also as Tsilido, in Cyprus.

Playing

Every player has fifteen checkers to start with. One player's checkers are placed on his one-point. The other player's checkers are placed on his 24 point. The players have to move their checkers in different direction on the Plakato board. At the start of the game each player rolls one die

Dice

A die is a small throwable object with multiple resting positions, used for generating random numbers...

and the player with the highest roll gets the chance to start. Unlike backgammon the player has to again roll the die to begin his first turn. A player who has won a game starts the next game. The number of points, or pips, or the places a player can move his checkers is decided by the roll of the die.

Rules

In the game of Plakoto a checker can be positioned only on an open point. An open point is the one that is not occupied by two or more checkers of the opponent. The numbers that appear after rolling the two dice make separate moves. For example, if a player rolls 4 and 2, he may move a checker four spaces to an open point and one more checker two spaces to an open point. A player also has an option to move a single checker to a total of six spaces to an open point — the precondition for this single move is that the intermediate points (four or two spaces from the starting point) must also be open.

Doubles

The doubles in Plakoto are played twice. For example, a roll of 3-3 means that the player can use the three’s four times. If it’s possible the player must use both the numbers of a roll and all four numbers in the case he draws a double in the roll of dice.

Pinning

Hitting is not allowed in the game of Plakoto. In its place, if a player lands on a point occupied by an opponent’s single checker, the opponent cannot move his checker unless the player moves his checker. In other words the opponent’s checker is Pinned. A block is created by two checkers of a player lying on a point or one of his checkers pinning the opponent’s checker.

Mother checker

The mother checker is the last checker on a player’s starting point. It is very important in the game of Plakoto. If the mother checker gets pinned by an opponent’s checker before it has left the starting point, the game is over and two points are lost. This particular rule has an exception if the opponent has his own mother checker at the starting point. A game in which the mother checkers of both players are pinned results in a tie.

Bearing off

Bearing off in the game of Plakoto starts after a player has moved all of his fifteen checkers on his home board. A player can bear off by rolling a number that corresponds to the point on which the checker is placed. If there is no checker on the point indicated by the roll, then the player has to make a legal move using a checker on a higher-numbered point. If there are no checkers on higher-numbered points, the player must remove a checker from the highest point that has a checker. In this way he can remove all of his checkers from the board

Scoring

The first player who bears off all his fifteen checkers is the winner of the game. If the losing player has successfully borne off at least one checker, he loses only one point; otherwise two points are lost.