Backgammon aka tavla Enters the Internet Age

admin · Site Admin Joined: 15 May 2007 Posts: 862

Backgammon aka tavla in an ancient board game that has recently become an extremely popular Internet gaming offering. To players in the United States and Western Europe, the game is only known as backgammon, but backgammon aka tavla would identify the game better to a Turkish or Iranian player.

It seems that the term tavla might have its origins in the Roman game tabula. The contribution of tabula to today’s backgammon aka tavla can clearly be seen in the many common elements. If we compare the Turkish game of Tavla with backgammon we can also see the marked similarities. Players of backgammon or tavla traveling across the world easily recognize the board with twenty-four narrow triangular divisions and the fifteen counters allocated to each player. The throw of the dice that determines the movement of counters and even the opening playing positions are identical, not to mention the common objective of being the first player that can take all their counters off the board. Therefore, to speak of backgammon aka tavla is a fair reflection of the high degree of similarity between the games that clearly testifies to a common origin.

However, by way of caution, to be strictly accurate it is preferable to regard tavla and backgammon as twins, but not twins of the identical kind. Although they share many key features in common, there are notable differences. For example, no dice cup is used in tavla for the dice are thrown with the fingers against the wooden side of the board. In addition, tavla in Turkey is a game played for fun only, in contrast to the prominent gaming element in the backgammon played in the west.