Tavla
The world's oldest board game, still played on every continent. Learn its history, its rules, and every regional variant — from Turkish tavla to Persian nard.
One board, a thousand names
Backgammon is a two-player race game played on a board of 24 narrow triangles, called points. Known as tavla in Turkey, tavli in Greece, nard in Iran, and shesh besh across the Levant, it is one of the oldest games still played today, combining luck from the dice with real strategic skill.
Five thousand years on the board
Boards resembling backgammon have been found in royal tombs in Mesopotamia dating back nearly 5,000 years. The Royal Game of Ur, Roman 'Tabula', and Persian Nard-e all fed into the game played today. Its modern English name comes from 'back' and 'gammon' (game), first recorded in the 17th century, describing how checkers can be sent all the way back.
How the board is set up
Each player starts with 15 checkers. In the standard setup, two checkers sit on each player's 24-point, five on the 13-point, three on the 8-point, and five on the 6-point. Players move their checkers in opposing directions around the 24 points toward their home board, then bear them off.
Simple to learn, hard to master
The rules take minutes to learn, but the doubling cube, contact play, and the probability of the dice give backgammon remarkable depth. It rewards patience, calculation, and the courage to take risks — a rare balance of luck and skill.