Sport & games
Galatasaray ve Fenerbahçe
The İstanbul derby between two continents that stops the whole country.
The Turkish encyclopedia
Sport & games
Football rivalries that stop the city, oil wrestling at Kırkpınar, and the two board games on every café table in the country.
4 pages in this category.
Sport & games
Yağlı güreş
Oil wrestling, and the Kırkpınar tournament held in Edirne since the 1300s.
Sport & games
Tavla
Backgammon, the game of every tea house, played fast and loud.
Sport & games
Okey
The tile game of numbered colours played around every café table.
Questions
What is the Intercontinental Derby?
Galatasaray against Fenerbahçe, the oldest and loudest rivalry in Turkish football. The name comes from the geography: Galatasaray's home is on the European side of Istanbul and Fenerbahçe's on the Asian.
What is yağlı güreş?
Oil wrestling, where the wrestlers wear leather kispet trousers and are covered in olive oil so no hold stays put. The Kırkpınar tournament in Edirne has been held since the fourteenth century and is on the UNESCO intangible heritage list.
What is okey, and is it the same as tavla?
They are two different café games. Tavla is backgammon, played fast and loudly with dice whose numbers are called in borrowed Persian, yek, dü, se. Okey is a tile game closer to rummy, played four-handed with 106 tiles.