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Some Backgammon History
I have always thought of backgammon as a Middle Eastern, Mediterranean board and strategy game played mostly by men. As a matter of fact, I don't ever recall seeing any women or girls playing the game.I remember seeing men in Athens and Piraeus, Greece, sitting outside of their cafes, drinking small cups of dark coffee or shot glasses of ouzo and playing the game with many loud exclamations and gesticulations. All this they did while their women went to work. I have also seen Arabs in Jaffa in the same kind of situation: outside cafes, drinking Turkish coffee laced with cardamom and playing backgammon for hours on end. I knew that these men sometimes played for money, but also just for the pleasure of outdoing friends at the game.
With all this in mind, I was not surprised that this oldest of board games stems from a similar game played in ancient Egypt something like 5,000 years ago. A game they called "Senet". It was later passed down to the Romans and called "Tabula" which is the Latin word for table. Someone has even recorded that the Emperor Claudius was extremely fond of the game.
In the first century A.D. the game was introduced into England by Roman invaders. It was called "Tables" by the English and became more like the backgammon we play today. In the mid-1600's it was first referred to as "Backgammon", derived from the Middle English word gamen, meaning game, and the term back, describing "game where you can go back". Although it was banned for a while in England because of its gambling nature, it was played in pubs and taverns, and in 1743 one Edmund Hoyle published the first official rules of the game.
Board Games and Strategy Games
Not all board games are also strategy games. Some only require moving tokens according to roles of dice until you reach a winning point. However, backgammon belongs to both of these game classes. Backgammon is played with two people. Each player receives 15 checkers. They are either black and red, or black and white. Each player has one side of the board as his "home" board and both sides of the board have 12 cone shaped points. And each player receives a pair of dice and a dice cup. The dice must be shaken in the cup and must land flat on the board when thrown. The aim of the game is to remove your checkers completely off the board by moving them around from point to point in a systematic manner. The winner is the player who removes all his checkers first.
Although the game box says that backgammon can be played from the age of 5 and up, I find it difficult to believe that a 5-year old will be able to manage the ins and outs of the strategy for movement.
Although this is really a game of chance (depending on the roll of the dice), there is a large scope for strategy and thought. With each roll of the dice, the player must choose his move from many available options, and he must also anticipate the possible counter moves of his opponent.
Today there are many backgammon tournaments held both in the United States and Europe. The game is very competitive, and, therefore, it is suitable for tournaments as well as for family and other social gatherings.
It is one of the most popular of the classic board games.
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