Variations

Forum Archive : Variations

Plakoto From:   Ed Dengler Address:   eadengle@cgl.uwaterloo.ca Date:   4 May 1995 Subject:   Re: Greek Backgammon Forum:   rec.games.backgammon Google:   D827L4.9v6@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca > Does anyone know the rules of a popular backgammon variant played in > Greece? As taught to me by my uncle (who is a Greek): Setup: All 15 of your men start on your 24 point (farthest point from your bearoff). Initially: Each player rolls 1 die, whoever rolls the highest uses both dice to move. Play alternates with each player rolling two dice. Movement and bearing off is the same as standard backgammon. The big difference in Greek backgammon is that you never 'hit' an opponent's checker and send it to the bar. Instead, you 'trap' the checker under your own. Your opponent is not allowed to move his checker until you uncover it. In addition, the trapped checker acts as one of your own to form a blot (ie. equivalent to two checkers of your own colour on a point). Because of the trapping rule, if you manage to trap an opponent's checker in your bearoff quadrant, you can pretty much force a gammon, unless you get trapped yourself and are forced to break the trap first. Also, backgammons are much more common than in regular backgammon. Have fun! Ed Dean Jameson  writes: Ed describes what is usually called Greek backgammon (plakoto). An interesting discussion of plakoto and moultezim, with lengthy strategic analyses, can be found in "Backgammon Games and Strategies" by Nicolaos and Basil Tzannes (A.S. Barnes & Co., 1977) (probably out of print). Both variants are worth looking into. Although quite different in structure, they share the common characteristic of having all men start on the point farthest from home, and so take two or three times as long to play as the regular game. They require a fair amount of long-term strategic thinking (and a fair amount of patience) in order to play well. Plakoto, IMHO, tends to be boring, because if one player can trap one of his opponent's pieces in its starting table, the game is essentially over unless the trapped player can equalize with a similarly far-from-home pin. Usually, he can't. BTW, a computer version of this game is included in the backgammon module of Software Toolworks' "Games People Play."   Did you find the information in this article useful?           Do you have any comments you'd like to add?

 

Variations

Acey-deucy  (J. Nagel, Dec 2004) 

Acey-deucy  (Steve Ewert, June 1998) 

Acey-deucy  (Lee+, Jan 1997) 

Acey-deucy  (John David Galt+, Dec 1995) 

Acey-deucy  (James Eibisch, Apr 1995) 

Backwards play  (Colin Bell, Feb 1996) 

Bad advice  (Jason Lee+, Mar 2004) 

Best-of-n variant of match play  (Tim Chow+, Feb 2009) 

Cancelgammon  (Ilia Guzei+, Mar 2004) 

Domino backgammon  (Laury Chizlett, Sept 1999) 

Duodecagammon  (David Moeser, Dec 2000) 

Duplicate backgammon  (Dean Gay+, Jan 1997) 

Duplicate backgammon  (Albert Steg, Feb 1996) 

Exact bearoff  (Chris Moellering+, Dec 2002) 

Fevga  (George, Sept 2004) 

Fevga (or Moultezim)  (Igor Sheyn+, May 1995) 

Freeze-out match  (Dave Brotherton, July 1998) 

Gabgammon  (jckz, Oct 2005) 

Greek backgammon  (Alexandre Charitopoulos, Aug 2003) 

Greek backgammon  (Alexandros Chatzipetros, June 1997) 

Greek backgammon  (Marc Jacobs+, Feb 1994) 

Hit man  (Matt Reklaitis, Jan 2004) 

Hyper backgammon  (Gregg Cattanach+, Dec 2000) 

Hyper backgammon  (Michael A Urban, Oct 1993) 

International backgammon  (Bob Lancaster+, Oct 2002) 

Jacquet  (Mark Driver, June 2001) 

LongRun  (Bill Hickey, Mar 2010) 

Longgammon  (Michael Strato, Dec 2000) 

Low number first, fixed dice, others.  (Walter Trice, Jan 1997) 

Mexican  (Tom Henry, Apr 1997) 

Middle Eastern backgammon  (Alan Cairns, Mar 2002) 

Misere (backgammon to lose)  (Jason Lee+, July 2004) 

Misere (backgammon to lose)  (Jason Lee+, Apr 1995) 

Misere, Chase, Skewed dice  (Stein Kulseth, Jan 1997) 

Nackgammon  (Ken Arnold, July 1996) 

Nackgammon opening moves  (Warwick+, Feb 2002) 

Narde  (narde, Nov 2006) 

Nardi  (KL Gerber+, Nov 2002) 

No hit  (RedTop+, May 2004) 

Nuclear backgammon  (Walt Swan, Apr 1997) 

Old English  (Nick Wedd+, Feb 1996) 

One roll lookahead  (Stephen Turner, Mar 1997) 

Opening slot rule  (Gregg Cattanach, June 2006) 

Other variations  (Douglas Zare, Feb 2000) 

Plakoto  (Ed Dengler+, May 1995) 

Plakoto  (Pasteel M., Feb 1994) 

Plakoto express  (Athansios Vagias, Feb 2005) 

Portes  (George, Sept 2004) 

Roll-over  (Edward D. Collins, Oct 1997) 

Russian backgammon  (Daavid Turnbull, Aug 1991) 

Shesh Besh  (G.S., May 2003) 

Simborg Rule  (Scott+, Feb 2005) 

Slot backgammon  (Fabrice Liardet+, Aug 2008) 

Sudden death, Woodpecker, Gerhardsen  (Fredrik Dahl, Jan 1997) 

Tablestakes betting  (TrueMoneygames, June 2002) 

Takhteh  (Bruce Scott+, Mar 2003) 

Tavla  (Arda Findikoglu, Nov 2004) 

Tavla  (ucc02cx+, Feb 1997) 

Tavli (Portes, Plakoto, and Fevga)  (Jens Larsen, July 1997) 

Tracy turn around  (Michael J. Zehr, Feb 1996) 

Tri-gammon  (Gregg Cattanach, Sept 2000) 

Trictrac  (David Levy+, May 1998) 

Trigammon  (James Eibisch, Jan 1997) 

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