Backgammon online at STEKIUS: Portes, Plakoto and Fevga

The aim of the game

Each player brings their fifteen checkers all the way round the board to their home, which on your screen is always bottom right, and then bears them off. Whoever bears off all fifteen checkers first wins the round.

You roll the two dice and each die moves a checker as many points as it shows. Doubles are played four times. When you can, you must play both dice; if only one fits, you play the higher one. To move a checker you tap it and then tap where it goes, or simply drag it.

Portes

Portes starts from the familiar set-up, with the checkers spread over several points. Two or more checkers on the same point make a gate: the opponent cannot land there. A single checker, though, is exposed.

If the opponent lands on a single checker of yours, they hit it and send it to the middle of the board. Before you make any other move, you must first bring it back into play from the start of your route.

Plakoto

In Plakoto all fifteen checkers start on one point. Nothing is hit: if you land on a single checker of the opponent, you pin it, and it cannot move as long as you stay on top of it.

The strongest blow is the mother: if you pin the last checker left on the opponent’s starting point, you win the round at once, and it counts double.

Fevga

In Fevga both players go the same way round, starting from opposite corners. Nothing is hit and nothing is pinned: a single checker is enough to hold a point.

Two rules make Fevga special. Your first checker must reach the quarter where the opponent starts before a second checker leaves the start. And you may not build six points in a row, unless an opponent’s checker has already passed them.

The match and the gammon

Before the table starts you choose which games will be played, in order, and how many rounds decide the match: 3, 5, 7 or 10. The winner of each round starts the next one, and whoever reaches the chosen number of rounds first wins the match. If you want something shorter, you choose “Quick game”: one single game, not a match, of Portes, Plakoto or Fevga.

If you win before the opponent has borne off even one checker, you score a gammon, which counts as two rounds.

Chips and leaving

The winner of the match wins chips and the loser loses the same. The chips are virtual and shared by all the games of the site. Against bots the win pays according to their level. A shorter match pays less, and the quick game less still, depending on how long the game lasts: Portes is the shortest, Fevga the longest.

During the first rolls of the match you can leave at no cost. After that, whoever walks away pays a leave penalty instead of the loser’s loss, never both. When the match already has a winner, you leave freely.

Tips for beginners

• In Portes avoid leaving single checkers close to the opponent’s checkers, where they are hit most easily.
• In Plakoto watch your mother: the last checker at the start is the most vulnerable target.
• In Fevga think ahead: whoever closes good points early makes life very hard for the other player.
• Start with easy bots to learn the three variants and then try the hard ones.

See also

• 

  Ludo

  Play now Rules
• 

  Ploutos

  Play now Rules
• 

  Draughts

  Play now Rules
• 

  Battleship

  Play now Rules
• 

  Domino

  Play now Rules
• 

  Chess

  Play now Rules