Backgammon
Games
Introduction to backgammon
Backgammon is a board game played by two opponents. The players using the
dice move their pieces to collect them at one side of the board,
and then start removing their pieces according to the roll of their
dice. The goal of the game is to remove all the pieces out of the
backgammon board first. Skill and luck are equally important
to winning the game. In order
for someone to win the game he must have acquired considerable
skill and technique but still he will need luck.It is somewhat similar to texas holdem, a card game where the odds of winning is also based on tactics and chance. After rolling
the dice, the outcome of which is unpredictable, the player must
wisely choose to move the right pieces to the right place. Ultimately
backgammon is a race. Two opponents, holding 15 pieces of different
color each move them around a board divided into 24 partitions
in order to remove all pieces from the board. To play the game
someone will need a backgammon board, 30 pieces (usually 15 black
and 15 white), a pair of dice (numbered from 1 to 6) and according
to the type of game, a doubling cube; a six faced die marked with
the following numbers: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64. This die is used
to keep track of the points that are bet for each different game.
Earlier versions of today’s backgammon games can be found with minor variations
even 6000 years ago. Even though many civilizations played different
board games very similar to backgammon, it was not until the 17th
century that the modern version of the game was shaped. Some people
say that the English word ‘backgammon’ derives from the Ancient
English language, containing the words “bac”, meaning back and
“gamen”, meaning game, giving emphasis to the style of the game,
playing backwards referring to the aim of the game, getting all
the pieces off the board. The other explanation is that the modern
name for this ancient game was drawn from the Welsh language, using
a combination of the words “bech”, which means small, and “gammon”,
which means war. This combination of words refers to the fast paced,
one-to-one race akin to a ‘mini war’ based on strategic plan and
luck. Different names and different variations of backgammon games
can be found throughout the world. In Turkey the game is called
‘Tavla’,
while in Romania, ‘table’, in Portugal ‘gamao’, in Persia ‘takhte nard’ translating to ‘battle on
a wooden board’, in Japan it is given the name ‘sugoroku’, in Hebrew
language it’s ‘shesh besh’, in Greece its called ‘tavli’ and the
most popular game is ‘portes’, in China its called ‘shuang lu’
translating to ‘double sixes’ and finally in the Arabic language
the game is referred to as ‘tawilat el-nard’ or ‘tawilat el-zahr’,
If someone wants to track down the origins of
backgammon he will have to look all the way back to 3000 BC. According
to historians and specialists, the Ancient Egyptians were the first
to play a game called ‘senet’, very similar to today’s backgammon.
In addition, experts found in Ancient Mesopotamia the first traces
of board games, one of them the ‘Royal Game of Ur’. Also in Iran
recent excavations revealed remains from possible board games dating
back to 3000 BC. The ancient Romans as well played a game very
similar to backgammon called ‘the game of twelve lines’. Surprisingly
there are no written rules for these games to be found making historians
believe that the game kept its popularity with the word of mouth,
passed on by travelers exploring new civilizations. The first signs
of written evidence date back to 470 AD in an epigram found in
a Byzantine city presenting a game called ‘Tabula’, very similar
to our Backgammon. It was in France during the 11th century that
the final predecessor of modern backgammon appeared called the ‘jeux de tables’. Those table games were also found
in Germany and even Ireland, around the 13th century. In a ship
wreck dating back to the 17th century a board game was found indicating
that the game reached even Sweden. Lastly in the 18th century backgammon
became popular among the English clergy. However the popularity
of this game was not always constant. Chess came arrived in the
19th century making the backgammon lose its popularity. Nevertheless
in the middle of the 20th century, Russian oligarch Alexis Obolinskey
fled with his family to Turkey in order to avoid the consequences
of the arising communist revolution in Russia. Obolinskey became
a passionate player of the Turkish version of backgammon called
‘Tavla’, sharing minor differences, and when he eventually fled
to the USA he brought the game with him. This led to the first
world championship of backgammon, which took place in the Bahamas
and to the first book written about Backgammon strategies by Obolinskey
himself. In 1979 the world backgammon championship moved to Monte-Carlo and still takes
place every year.
For all the fans of backgammon there is a something
about that game that makes it great: backgammon is a game of skill
and luck. When someone wins, he can say it was because of his great
skills, whereas when someone loses, he can claim that it was because
of bad luck.
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BACKGAMMON GAMES