Tawula Backgammon Variant (aka Turkish Backgammon)

Tawula, a Backgammon variant which is extremely popular in Egypt and Anatolia of the Greek World, is often called Turkish Backgammon.

Every participant begins with 13 checkers outside of the Backgammon board and 2 checkers on the point that is farthest to the right. The players both make the same counterclockwise course across the board.

As with most Backgammon variants, the object of the game is to get every one of your checkers to move all the way around the board and bear the checkers off.

To begin playing Tawula, every player rolls a single die and the player with the higher number gets to play first and make use of the numbers that arose for his initial turn.

You can't move your first 2 checkers until the rest of your checkers have been brought into the board. A checker can be brought into the board when you put it on the point of the number you rolled. Nevertheless, you can not bring a checker to a point that is held by at least 1 of your checkers or by at least 2 of your opponent's checkers.

Once you bring a checker in, you can either use the numbers that were rolled in order to bring in additional checkers or you can move the checkers that you brought in previously.

Players need to move their checkers in accordance with the points that correspond to the numbers that come up when they roll the dice. These are the rules of checker movement in Tawula Backgammon:

1. A checker can only be placed on a point that isn't held by at least 2 of the opponent's checkers.
2. The numbers on each of the dice in Tawula signify 2 independent moves.
3. Doubles have to be played 2 times.
4. You have to play all of your roll whenever you can and all 4 numbers if doubles are rolled.

A blot is a single checker that occupies a point. If your opponent's checker winds up on your blot, your blot gets hit and is put on the bar.

In the case that a blot gets hit in your opponent's beginning table, try to leave 1 point in that table vacant in order to enable the checker to be brought in again. However, if the blot got hit in a different spot, than this is irrelevant.

In this Backgammon variant, whenever you have at least 1 checker on the bar, your number 1 priority should be to get those checkers into your beginning table. The way to do this includes moving a checker to an available point that matches 1 of the numbers you've rolled. In the case that you succeed in bringing some, but not every one of your checkers, then you have to bring in as many as you possibly can and forsake the rest of your turn.

Limitations

Every Tawula player is prohibited from stacking more than 1 checker on a single point from the opponent's side of the table. There is only 1 situation where this limitation does not apply to this Backgammon variant - you are allowed to stack an unlimited number of checkers on the point that is the farthest to the left on the opponent's side of the table, which is called the head.

This means that bringing in your checkers is more challenging than in traditional Backgammon since in Tawula, besides the points your opponent closes, you make blocks with your very own men.

When every one of your checkers is in your finishing board, you can start to bear off. In order to bear off, you need to roll a number that matches the point that checker stands on and then take that checker off the Backgammon board.

In the case that no checker stands on the point signified by the roll, you must make a move with a checker on a higher point. If the same goes for the higher points, then you have to take a checker off of the highest point with a checker.

Also keep in mind that doubling does not exist in Tawula.

Furthermore, if you bear off every one of your 15 checkers before your opponent, you win the Tawula Backgammon game. In the case that you bear off a single checker and the rest of your checkers are prepared for bear off, while your opponent has a single checker on the bar and the rest of his checkers are prepared for bear off, then you win.

David Carnegy - Managing Editor