What is Plakoto?
Plakoto is one of the three games of Greek Tavli. Each player starts with all fifteen checkers on the opponent's 1-point, its own 24-point, and the two sides race around the board in opposite directions, as in backgammon.
There is no hitting. When you land on a point held by a single opposing checker, you pin it: your checker sits on top, and the pinned checker can't move until all of your checkers leave that point. While it is pinned, its owner can't land there either, and it still counts as being outside its home board, so its owner can't bear off.
Pinning the opponent's last checker on its starting point, its mother, wins the game at once for two points, unless you still have a checker on your own starting point. If both mothers are pinned, the game is a tie. Otherwise the first player to bear off all fifteen checkers wins: two points if the opponent has borne off none, one point otherwise.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Backgammon | Plakoto |
|---|---|---|
| Starting position | Standard BackgammonFifteen checkers each: two on your 24-point, five on your 13-point, three on your 8-point and five on your 6-point. | PlakotoAll fifteen checkers on your 24-point, the opponent's 1-point. |
| Landing on a lone checker | Standard BackgammonHits it: it goes to the bar and must enter again. | PlakotoPins it: it stays where it is, under your checker, and can't move until every checker of yours has left that point. |
| A pinned checker | Standard BackgammonThere is no pinning. | PlakotoIts owner can't land on the pinned point, and can't bear off while the checker is pinned outside the home board. |
| The mother | Standard BackgammonThere is no special rule for the starting point. | PlakotoPinning the opponent's last checker on its starting point wins two points at once, unless you still have a checker on your own starting point. Both mothers pinned is a tie. |
| Cube and scoring | Standard BackgammonOptional doubling cube; one point for a win, two for a gammon (the loser has borne off no checkers) and three for a backgammon (the loser also still has a checker on the bar or in the winner's home board). | PlakotoNo doubling cube. One point for a win, two if the loser has borne off no checkers. |
History
Plakoto is played across Greece and Cyprus as one of the three games of Tavli, the Greek name for the backgammon family. A Tavli match traditionally runs through Portes, which is close to standard backgammon, then Plakoto, then Fevga, and starts again, until one player reaches the agreed number of points.
The name comes from the Greek verb for pressing or pinning down, after the game's central move. Pinning games are much older than modern backgammon: rules in which a checker traps a lone opposing checker rather than hitting it appear in medieval tables games, and close relatives of Plakoto, such as Tapa in Bulgaria and Mahbusa in the Arab world, are still played today.