Backgammon

I

Introduction

Backgammon, game played by two players, each of whom, according to throws of dice, moves 15 counters on a specially marked board in an effort to be the first to move the counters off the board. A slightly different form of the game, called Acey-Deucey, is also popular.

II

History

The oldest game in recorded history, backgammon is believed to have originated in Mesopotamia. Excavated relics and extant literary references indicate the game's popularity among the ancient aristocracies of Greece, Rome, Persia, and the Far East. The Romans called the game tabula, probably with reference to the board on which it is played. Tabula was taken to Ancient Britain with the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century AD. Tables (the English form of the word) was played throughout the Middle Ages. Elsewhere also, various forms of the game were popular among the leisured classes; in Italy tavola reale and in Spain tablas reales, both meaning “royal table(s),” were played. In France the game was known as trictrac, presumably an imitation of the sound of rattling dice.

By the early 17th century in England the game had been refined into an approximation of today's game except for doubling, a modification added in 1925. The name backgammon was coined about 1645, most likely combining the Middle English words bac (“back”) and gammen (“game”) and referring to the reentry of counters onto the table. Backgammon remained a popular aristocratic pastime, and about 1743 the British writer on games Edmond Hoyle codified the rules of play. These rules were modified in the United States in 1931; this code generally governs the game today. Since the 1960s the game has enjoyed widespread and increasing popularity because of its combination of strategy and chance.

III

Rules

Backgammon is generally played by two people. An alternate set of rules, however, allows any number; only two people actually roll the dice and move the counters, but they may have partners for consultation and advice. The counters, black and white or in two other contrasting colors, also are called stones or men. They are set out on a board divided into halves—called the inner and outer tables—by a partition, or bar. The tables are marked by 12 elongated triangles called points; the object of play is to be the first to move all 15 stones from point to point into one's own inner table, and then to continue moving or bearing them off the board. The winner scores a single game (or point value, as determined by the doubling cube) if the opponent has borne off at least one stone.

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In the United States, a gammon is won—that is, the winner's count is doubled—if the opponent has not moved any stone off the board. If the opponent has any stones left on the winner's inner table or on the bar, a backgammon, or triple game, is scored. Outside the United States, however, both a gammon and a backgammon are worth a double game.

The stones are moved the exact number of points indicated by the number on two dice thrown from a dice cup. When doubles are thrown, four plays of the number on the dice are required. Plays must be made for both dice if possible; if either number thrown may be played, but not both, then the higher number thrown must be played. A stone may not be moved to a point occupied by two or more of the opponent's counters; if a stone is moved to a point occupied by only one counter, however, it is called a blot, and the opponent's counter is removed to the bar. Since players cannot move while they have a stone on the bar, the stone must first be reentered; this can only be done by rolling the number of an exposed point on the opponent's inner table.

IV

Doubling

The relatively recent rule for doubling the score gives increased scope for skilled playing and increases the tempo of the game. The winning count can be raised in two ways. In automatic doubles, only played upon the agreement of the players, each tie in the opening throw of the dice doubles the previous count. In voluntary doubles, either player may offer the first optional double of the previous count. The right to double then alternates, always being with the player who accepted the last double. A double may be offered only when it is the player's turn and before the player has thrown the dice. Doubles may be accepted or declined; refusal terminates the game, and the player refusing loses whatever the count amounted to before the double was offered.

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