Plakoto

Plakoto starting layout

Plakotó (Πλακωτό) is a tables game for two players that is popular in Greece. The object of Plakotó is for the player to bring all 15 pieces around to his or her own home board and then bear them off. The player who bears off all 15 pieces first wins the game. This game is usually played along with two other variants, and Pórtes (similar to backgammon). Together these three games are called , and are played in sequence usually one after the other. Game is three, five or seven points. A Bulgarian version of Plakoto is known as Tapa and also as Tsillitón (Τσιλλιτόν), in Cyprus. Parlett places Plakoto in the same group as the popular mediaeval game of English, as well as the French games of Tieste and Impérial, the Italian game of Testa and Spanish Emperador.^[1]

Play[]

Each player has fifteen pieces to start with. One player's pieces are placed on his or her ace-point; the opponent's pieces are placed on the 24 point. Players must move their pieces in different directions on the Plakotó board. At the start of the game each player rolls one die and the player with the higher roll has the privilege of going first. That player must roll the dice again to begin the first turn. The player who wins a game starts the next game. The number of points, or pips, or the places a player can move his pieces is decided by the roll of the dice.

Rules[]

In Plakoto a piece can only be moved to an open point. An open point is the one that is not occupied by two or more opposing pieces. The numbers cast after rolling the two dice represent separate moves. For example, if a player rolls 4 and 2, she may move a piece four spaces to an open point and a second piece two spaces to an open point. A player may also combine the casts and move a single piece a total of six spaces to an open point — the precondition for this single move is that the intermediate point (four or two spaces from the starting point) must also be open.

Doublets[]

Doublets in Plakoto are played twice. For example, a roll of 3-3 means that the player can use the three's four times. Whenever possible the player must use both numbers of a roll and all four numbers in the case he throws a doublet in rolling the dice.

Pinning[]

Hitting is not allowed in Plakoto. In its place, if a player lands on a point occupied by a single opposing piece, the opponent's piece is 'pinned' and cannot be moved until the pinning player moves his piece. A block is created by two pieces of a player lying on a point or one of his pieces pinning the opponent's piece.

Mother piece[]

The mother piece is the last piece on a player's starting point. It is very important in Plakoto, because if the mother piece gets pinned by an opposing piece before it has left the starting point, the game is over and lost double. This rule is waived if the opponent also has his own mother piece at the starting point. A game in which the mother pieces of both players are pinned results in a tie.

Bearing off[]

A player may only start bearing off in Plakoto after all fifteen pieces have reached the home board. A player can bear off by rolling a number that corresponds to the point on which the piece is placed. If there is no piece on the point indicated by the roll, then the player has to make a legal move using a piece on a higher-numbered point. If there are no pieces on higher-numbered points, the player must remove a piece from the highest point that has a piece. In this way he can remove all of his pieces from the board.

Scoring[]

The first player who bears off all his fifteen pieces is the winner. If the loser has successfully borne off at least one piece, he loses only one point; otherwise two points are lost.

References[]

• Backgammon Galore - Plakoto

Literature[]

• Parlett, David (1999). The Oxford History of Board Games. Oxford: OUP.