Tavli

Tavli is portes, plakoto and fevga, the three games of every Greek kafeneio, on a board made like the real thing. On iPhone Duo Open iPhone Duo and the whole board fills the inner display, with its middle bar and both brass hinges on the fold and one half of the board on each side, the way a real tavli board opens. Close it and the outer display sets the board between two dice trays, and each player rolls into their own. A game carries on as you fold and unfold: the checkers, the dice and whose turn it is stay as they were. With the phone half open and held like a book, the result card moves to one side, clear of the fold. In a guided game with the phone closed, the lesson sits where the top tray would be; with the phone open, its card takes the corner where it hides none of the checkers you need to move. Three games, played properly Portes is backgammon as Greece plays it. Plakoto pins…