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Backgammon History

The game of Backgammon is very popular nowadays and it is one of the most ancient games in the same time. It's history proves this fact. Of course, taking into consideration from the moment it appeared, it has suffered several changes and new variations - No doubt about it!

Looking back at Backgammon's history, this game had been played by the aristocracy and by the leaders of the ancient civilization of Persia, Rome, Greece and Far East. The origins of this game come from Mesopotamia, from the Persian Empire which is now known as Iraq, Iran and Syria. At that time it had been played on different surfaces, such as wood. Stones were used for checkers and the dice made of wood, stones, bones and sometimes pottery.

Some gaming boards have been found in Egypt which had squares of 3x10, 3x12 and 3x6. These were called "The Game of Thirty Squares" or "Senat." Researchers have discovered more than 40 boards of this type and found them to be very difficult to reconstruct. There was no written evidence related to these games' rules. These discoveries show that these board games appeared between 3000-1788BC. There is no paper about specific moves or strategies. The importance of using the dice also remain unrevealed.

Around 2600BC some boards made of wood with dice were discovered in Ur al Chaldees. This game was known as "The Royal Games of Ur." Researchers came up with a set of rules for this game which has been played at that time.

Later on, some discoveries proved that the Romans had a board game called "Ludus Duodecim Scriptorum", which translated means "The Game of 12 Lines." This board was made of leather and consisted of 3 lines having 12 squares each. There were 30 checkers out of which 15 were made of ebony and 15 of ivory. This Roman board game which dates back to around 600AD is considered to be a variation of the Egyptian Senat. Later on, instead of 3x12 lines, they introduced the board with 2x12 lines, and it started to get closer to today's Backgammon version. This game was introduced in Great Britain by the Romans in the 1st Century, and it was known as "Tabula." This word came from the board itself on which they have played. This game's popularity has grown and it was entertainment for many people, including Emperor Claudius.

With the passing of time, around 50AD, it was Emperor Claudius who wrote about this game's history, but no writings have survived. Under the republicanism, the game of backgammon was banned and declared illegal because it was taken as gambling.

In the 6th Century, backgammon was known as "Alea" which means "the art of gambling with dice", which seems to have formed the rules of today's backgammon. There has been many changes relating to positions of checkers and their movements.

Now let's take a look at this game's history in Asia. Before 800AD, a board game appeared which was known as "Nard." This came from a word which is the name of a particular wood type in Persian language. This game of Nard was played with the same rules as the game of Alea with the players using a pair of dice. Instead of Nard the Persians used other names such as "Nardshir", "Nardeeshir", "Nard-i-shir" or "Takhteh Nard" which means "battle on wood."

An early writing shows that this game of Nard has specific symbols:

- each side of the board consists of 12 points - which show the number of months throughout one year

- both sides of the board, containing 24 points representing the hours in one day

- the 30 checkers are for the number of days in one month

- the 7 days of a week are represented by the sum of opposing sides of a die (1 and 6 points)

- the meaning of the two different colors of those 30 checkers is day and night

The Chinese name for the game of Nard was "T'shu-p'u." It first appeared in Western India and then introduced in China around 220-265AD during the Wei dynasty. In the same time, the Japanese called this game "Sugoroku."

Nard had been introduced into Europe by Spain or Italy. The Nard is more similar to the Egyptian Senat, as there are some minor differences between this and Tabula. The main distinction between these two is that the game of Nard was played with 2 dice, while Tabula with 3. Later on, the game of Tabula used 2 dice instead of 3 and this gained popularity.

As time passed, the more popular Backgammon became. In the middle ages, the exciting game of Nard or Tables was played more frequently in specific English taverns. The very first writing in English about this game was around 1025 and was called "The Codex Exoniensis." Until the reign of Elisabeth I, this game had been banned because of the so-called "gambling-mania" people had and it's popularity slowly grew. It had different names in each country, such as: in Italy it was known as "Tavola Reale", in Spain "Tables Reales", in Greece "Tavli", in Turkey they called it "Tavla", in France "Tric Trac", in Britain "Backgammon" or "Tables", in Germany "Puff", in Czech "Vrhcaby" and in China "Swan-liu."

The particular word of Backgammon is thought to come from either the Saxon "baec" (which means back) or "gamen" (game), or from the Welsh "bac" (little) "cammaun" (battle). In 1743, a man named Edmond Hoyle wrote the very first official Treatise on the game of Backgammon and he codified the rules.

It is said that Backgammon was introduced in the US, in New York in the 1920s. Thanks to an unknown gambler, who combined this game's rule with the skill required for playing. There were some restrictions regarding the game as only the upper class was permitted to play in private clubs. In the US, the standard rules of Backgammon suffered some changes around 1931 which are applied in today's game. Later on, in 1940 and during the World War II, this game somewhat lost it's popularity. This happened only till 1960, when Prince Alexis Obelensky (Oby) started organizing tournaments. He was the first to introduce a World Championship of Backgammon in the Bahamas; this way he has also gained a great reputation. He also published a book having the title of "Backgammon: The Action Game."

Backgammon publicity had a great success when issued a wide range of newspaper articles, magazines and books. As time went on, not just the upper class could play, but the middle class as well. It became a great entertainment for the youth, also. Every single player was more and more interested in specific strategies and moves of backgammon checkers.

In the 1990s, the appearace of computer Backgammon was a great evolution for this game. Gerald Tesauro of IBM made software which could enlighten players about several aspects and taught different moves of checkers. Andreas Schneider created the First Internet Backgammon Server (FIBS) in 1933 which was hosted for free in Sweden by an academic computer. Then, the first commercial neural net backgammon software with Jellyfish was created by Frederic Dahl of Norway.

Later on, Olivier Egger introduced other Backgammon software which is known as Snowie. The up-to-date achievement in what Backgammon software is consisting of is the GNU Backgammon.

So, from ancient Persian Empire, the game of Backgammon has survived and kept it's popularity. Not to mention the fact that it is still today one of the most frequently played games.

Now we also have the chance to play Online Backgammon provided by a wide selection of websites, maintaining it's popularity in the same time. Most of these websites supply players with different advice about it's rules and articles relating to specific playing strategies. One can benefit from the most efficient and satisfying piece of information.

Throw the dice and enjoy this pleasant and relaxing game, anytime, anywhere!


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