Editing Tables game (section)

== Types ==
Tables games may be classified by movement<ref name=Parlett58-87>Parlett (1999), pp. 58–87.</ref> or by tactics.<ref name=P&R>Papahristou & Refanidis (2013), pp. 2–3.</ref>

=== Movement ===
Parlett (1999) identifies three different modes of movement in tables games:<ref name=Parlett58-87/>

==== Games without movement ====
A small number of tables games involve no actual movement of pieces around the board. Instead pieces are entered or borne off or both, the aim being to be the first player to do so. Examples include Alfonso's Los Doze Canes also called Los Doze Hermanos, the English games of [[Doublets (game)|Doublets]] and Catch Dolt, the French games Renette, Tables Rabattues and Paumecary, the Icelandic game of [[Ofanfelling]] and the Levantine game of Eureika. Most of these games are simple pursuits suitable for children.

==== Games of contrary movement ====
This is the group to which [[Backgammon]] belongs. Some start with all pieces off the board, others with a fixed starting layout, but the aim in every case is to race them around the board in opposite directions and be first to bear them off. The group also includes Acey Deucey, known as Gegenpuff in German-speaking countries, Plakota, the "[[English Game]]", the Spanish games of Emperador, Quinze Tablas and [[Todas Tablas]], the Italian games of Tavole Reales and Testa, and the French games of Tieste, Impérial and [[Trictrac]].

==== Games of parallel movement ====
Like other members of the tables family, games in this last group are often mistaken for Backgammon or assumed to be its variants, yet the direction of movement and hence play is quite different. Players move in the same direction around the board and that direction is always anticlockwise. The group includes the old German games of Langer Puff (known confusingly in English as German or Russian Backgammon) and Buffa, the Italian game of Buffa Cortese, the Spanish games of [[Laquet]] and Pareia de Entrada, the continental game of [[Verquere]], French [[Jacquet]], Turkish Moultezim and a curious Icelandic game called Chase the Girls.

=== Tactics ===
Papahristou & Refanidis (2013) categorise tables games by the type of attacking tactics permitted during the game:<ref name=P&R/>

==== Hitting games ====
This is the standard tactic in games of [[contrary movement]] such as [[Backgammon]] where players move their pieces in opposing directions. In a [[hitting game]], the players may [[hit (tables game)|hit]] enemy [[blot (tables game)|blots]] off the board. To do this a point must be occupied by only one opposing piece – this is called a blot – and the attacking player must move a piece onto that point. The blot is "hit" or "knocked off" the board and is usually placed on the [[bar (tables game)|bar]] between the two halves of the board.

==== Pinning games ====
[[Pinning game]]s are also games of contrary movement. However, no hitting is allowed. Instead, the attacking player may pin a blot by moving a piece onto the same point. The blot is not removed from the board, but is trapped and not permitted to move until the covering man is moved off. [[Plakoto]] is an example of a pinning game.

==== Running games ====
A [[running game (tables game)|running game]] is a game in which no hitting or pinning is allowed and the game is essentially a race to [[bear off]] all one's pieces first. Points occupied even by one enemy man are blocked to the other side. They are usually games of [[parallel movement]], like [[Fevga]], where players move around the board in the same direction, but some, like [[Gioul]], are games of [[contrary movement]] where players race their pieces past one another in opposing directions.