Tavla - Turkish version of Backgammon

The Turkish name Tavla suggests a link with the ancient Roman version of the game, known as tabula, and it also indicates a common root shared with the English word, table (i.e. the board the game is played on). Takhteh is the Iranian version of the Tavla game. Tavla is more popular in Turkey than backgammon is in the United States and Western Europe.

To a backgammon player, many Tavla moves will look familiar. The board is the same as the backgammon board, with its twenty four points and fifteen checkers for each player. Secondly, the throws of the dice that determine the moves, and thirdly the way the checkers are moved along the board are identical to standard backgammon. The objective of tavla is to bring all the counters into the home board then bear them off.

For all that tavla, the Turkish version of backgammon, shares with backgammon, there are a number of significant differences in the way it is played. Gamling has a gamling aspect to it, while tavla is usualy played only for fun. The doubling cube is absent from Tavla. It is costomary to cast the dice with one's hand, and not a dice cup. The appearance of the dice also varies from the one most English-speaking players use, since the number one dot is larger than the other dots on the dice and usually colored in red. .

There are also many differences in the game mechanics, between backgammon and tavla. The idea of an illegal dice throw is absent from tavla as long as the dice land on the board. The strategy of making blots is also not applicable to tavla since these blots will be quickly hit and sent to the bar. Tavla is played much faster than backgammon.