Description

Two neighbouring tribes, attracted to each other by a mixture of friendship and rivalry, decided to found a new City. A checkered system of plots was marked out around the lakes of Indigo and on the isthmus between them. The tribes were to take alternating turns in occupying these plots — and, in the process, play a game which would decide which of these plots would be given over to public buildings, which, for convenience, we call "Pavilions." Within the rules of the game, a special way of surrounding a plot belonging to the other tribe would oblige them to donate what would have been their own living space as a site for a Pavilion. As a mark of respect for their public-spiritedness, the losing tribe was to be accorded the honour of naming the city. After a close game, the losers named the city Tablaaza.

In Tablaaza, players take turns placing a piece on one of their own squares.

A player places a pavilion on one of the opponent's playing squares (provided it is, as yet, unoccupied), if, after the move just played, all the squares of his or her own color that share a "corridor" with that square are occupied. A "corridor" means a row or column of two or more playing squares. Sometimes more than one pavilion can thus be raised on a turn of play. Once a pavilion has been placed on a square, there is no further play on that square.

The objective is to be the last player able to play a move. Once a player no longer has a space to play into, s/he has lost.