Backgammon

For the 2013 lm, see Backgammon (lm).

The objective is to remove (bear o) all of ones own

checkers from the board before ones opponent can do the
same. The checkers are, in the most often-played variants, scattered at rst, and may be blocked or hit by the
opponent. As the playing time for each individual game
is short, it is often played in matches, where victory is
awarded to the rst player to reach a certain number of
points.

Backgammon is one of the oldest board games for two

players. The playing pieces are moved according to the
roll of dice, and a player wins by removing all of their
pieces from the board before their opponent. Backgammon is a member of the tables family, one of the oldest
classes of board games in the world.
Although luck is one of the determining factors in the
outcome, strategy plays a more important role in the long
run.[1] With each roll of the dice, players must choose
from numerous options for moving their checkers and
anticipate possible counter-moves by the opponent. In
variants that originate from early 20th century New York,
players may raise the stakes during the game. There is
an established repertoire of common tactics and occurrences.

1.1 Setup

Each side of the board has a track of 12 long triangles,

called points. The points are considered to be connected
across one edge of the board, forming a continuous track
in the shape of a horseshoe, and are numbered from 1 to
24. In the most commonly used setup, each player begins
with fteen checkers, two are placed on their 24-point,
three on their 8-point, and ve each on their 13-point
Like chess, backgammon has been studied with great inand their 6-point. The two players move their checkers
terest by computer scientists. Owing to this research,
in opposing directions, from the 24-point towards the 1backgammon software has been developed capable of
point.[2]
beating world-class human players.
Points 1 through 6 are called the home board or inner
board, and points 7 through 12 are called the outer board.
The 7-point is referred to as the bar point, and the 131 Rules
point as the midpoint.[2][3]
13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

12

11

10

1.2 Movement

Paths of movement for red and black, with checkers in the starting position; viewed from the black side, with home or inner
board at lower right

Video of a game of backgammon, showing movement around

the board, entering from the bar, formation of primes, use of the
doubling cube and bearing o

Backgammon playing pieces are known variously as

checkers, draughts, stones, men, counters, pawns, discs, To start the game, each player rolls one die, and the player
pips, chips, or nips.
with the higher number moves rst using the numbers
1

2
shown on both dice. If the players roll the same number, they must roll again as the rst move cannot be a
doublet. Both dice must land completely at on the righthand side of the gameboard. The players then alternate
turns, rolling two dice at the beginning of each turn.[2][3]

1 RULES
When all of a players checkers are in that players home
board, that player may start removing them; this is called
bearing o. A roll of 1 may be used to bear o a
checker from the 1-point, a 2 from the 2-point, and so
on. A die may not be used to bear o checkers from
a lower-numbered point unless there are no checkers on
any higher points.[2][3] For example, if a player rolls a 6
and a 5, but has no checkers on the 6-point and two on
the 5-point, then the 6 and the 5 must be used to bear
o the two checkers from the 5-point. When bearing
o, a player may also move a lower die roll before the
higher even if that means the full value of the higher die
is not fully utilized. For example, if a player has exactly
one checker remaining on the 6-point, and rolls a 6 and
a 1, the player may move the 6-point checker one place
to the 5-point with the lower die roll of 1, and then bear
that checker o the 5-point using the die roll of 6; this is
sometimes useful tactically. As before, if there is a way
to fully use the moves showing on the dice, by moving
checkers within the home board and/or bearing them o,
the player must do so.

After rolling the dice, players must, if possible, move

their checkers according to the number shown on each
die. For example, if the player rolls a 6 and a 3 (notated
as 6-3), the player must move one checker six points
forward, and another or the same checker three points
forward. The same checker may be moved twice, as long
as the two moves can be made separately and legally: six
and then three, or three and then six. If a player rolls
two of the same number, called doubles, that player must
play each die twice. For example, a roll of 5-5 allows the
player to make up to four moves of ve spaces each. On
any roll, a player must move according to the numbers on
both dice if it is at all possible to do so. If one or both
numbers do not allow a legal move, the player forfeits that
portion of the roll and his/her turn ends. If moves can be
made according to either one die or the other, but not
both, the higher number must be used. If one die is un- If one player has not borne o any checkers by the time
able to be moved, but such a move is made possible by that players opponent has borne o all fteen, then the
the moving of the other die, that move is compulsory.
player has lost a gammon, which counts for double a norIn the course of a move, a checker may land on any point mal loss. If the losing player has not borne o any checkthat is unoccupied or is occupied by one or more of the ers and still has checkers on the bar or in the opponents
players own checkers. It may also land on a point occu- home board, then the player has lost a backgammon,
[2][3]
pied by exactly one opposing checker, or blot. In this which counts for three times a normal loss.
case, the blot has been hit, and is placed in the middle of the board on the bar that divides the two sides 1.3
of the playing surface. A checker may never land on a
point occupied by two or more opposing checkers; thus,
no point is ever occupied by checkers from both players
simultaneously.[2][3] There is no limit to the number of
checkers that can occupy a point at any given time.
Checkers placed on the bar by being hit must re-enter the
game through the opponents home board. A roll of 1 allows the checker to enter on the 24-point (opponents 1),
a roll of 2 on the 23-point (opponents 2), and so forth, up
to a roll of 6 allowing entry on the 19-point (opponents
6). Checkers may not enter on a point occupied by two
or more opposing checkers. Checkers can enter on unoccupied points, or on points occupied by a single opposing
checker; in the latter case, the single checker is hit and
placed on the bar. More than one checker can be on the
bar at a time. A player may not move any other checkers until all checkers on the bar belonging to that player
have re-entered the board.[2][3] If a player has checkers
on the bar, but rolls a combination that does not allow any
of those checkers to re-enter, the player does not move.
If the opponents home board is completely closed (i.e.
all six points are each occupied by two or more checkers),
there is no roll that will allow a player to enter a checker
from the bar, and that player stops rolling and playing until at least one point becomes open (occupied by one or
zero checkers) due to the opponents moves.

Doubling cube

Doubling cube

To speed up match play and to provide an added dimension for strategy, a doubling cube is usually used. The
doubling cube is not a die to be rolled but rather a marker,
in the form of a cube with the numbers 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and
64 inscribed on its sides, denoting the current stake. At
the start of each game, the doubling cube is placed on the

1.4

Variants

bar with the number 64 showing; the cube is then said

to be centered, on 1. When the cube is centered, the
player about to roll may propose that the game be played
for twice the current stakes. Their opponent must either
accept (take) the doubled stakes or resign (drop) the
game immediately.
Whenever a player accepts doubled stakes, the cube is
placed on their side of the board with the corresponding
power of two facing upward, to indicate that the right to
re-double belongs exclusively to the player who last accepted a double.[2][3] If the opponent drops the doubled
stakes, he loses the game at the current value of the doubling cube. For instance, if the cube showed the number
2 and a player wanted to redouble the stakes to put it at
4, the opponent choosing to drop the redouble would lose
two, or twice the original stake.
The game is rarely redoubled beyond four times the original stake, but there is no limit on the number of redoubles.
Although 64 is the highest number depicted on the doubling cube, the stakes may rise to 128, 256, and so on.
In money games, a player is often permitted to "beaver"
when oered the cube, doubling the value of the game
again, while retaining possession of the cube.[4]

3
mon. The Jacoby rule is widely used in money play but is
not used in match play.[5]
The Crawford rule, named after John R. Crawford,
is designed to make match play more equitable for the
player in the lead. If a player is one point away from winning a match, that players opponent will always want to
double as early as possible in order to catch up. Whether
the game is worth one point or two, the trailing player
must win to continue the match. To balance the situation, the Crawford rule requires that when a player rst
reaches a score one point short of winning, neither player
may use the doubling cube for the following game, called
the Crawford game. After the Crawford game, normal
use of the doubling cube resumes. The Crawford rule is
routinely used in tournament match play.[5] It is possible
for a Crawford game never to occur in a match.
If the Crawford rule is in eect, then another option is the
Holland rule, named after Tim Holland, which stipulates
that after the Crawford game, a player cannot double until
after at least two rolls have been played by each side. It
was common in tournament play in the 1980s but is now
rarely used.[6]

A variant of the doubling cube beaver is the "raccoon.

1.4
Players who doubled their opponent, seeing the opponent
beaver the cube, may in turn then double the stakes once
again (raccoon) as part of that cube phase before any
dice are rolled. The opponent retains the doubling cube.
E.g. White doubles Black to 2 points, Black accepts then
beavers the cube to 4 points; White, condent of a win,
raccoons the cube to 8 points, while Black retains the
cube. Such a move adds greatly to the risk of having to
face the doubling cube coming back at 8 times its original value when rst doubling the opponent (oered at 2
points, counter oered at 16 points) should the luck of
the dice change.
Some players may opt to invoke The Murphy rule or
the automatic double rule. If both opponents roll the
same opening number, the doubling cube is incremented
on each occasion yet remains in the middle of the board,
available to either player. The Murphy rule may be invoked with a maximum number of automatic doubles allowed and that limit is agreed to prior to a game or match
commencing. When a player decides to double the opponent, the value is then a double of whatever face value
is shown (e.g. if two automatic doubles have occurred
putting the cube up to 4, the rst in-game double will be
for 8 points). The Murphy rule is not an ocial rule in
backgammon and is rarely, if ever, seen in use at ocially
sanctioned tournaments.

Variants

Todas tablas from the Libro de los juegos

Main article: Tables (board game)

There are many variants of standard backgammon rules.

Some are played primarily throughout one geographic region, and others add new tactical elements to the game.
Variants commonly alter the starting position, restrict certain moves, or assign special value to certain dice rolls, but
in some geographic regions even the rules and directions
The Jacoby rule, named after Oswald Jacoby, allows of the checkers movement change, rendering the game
gammons and backgammons to count for their respective fundamentally dierent.
double and triple values only if the cube has already been
Acey-deucey is a variant of backgammon in which playoered and accepted. This encourages a player with a
ers start with no checkers on the board, and must bear
large lead to double, possibly ending the game, rather than
them on at the beginning of the game. The roll of 1to play it to conclusion hoping for a gammon or backgam2 is given special consideration, allowing the player, af-

2 STRATEGY AND TACTICS

ter moving the 1 and the 2, to select any desired doubles Backgammon has an established opening theory, almove. A player also receives an extra turn after a roll of though it is less detailed than that of chess. The tree of
1-2 or of doubles.[7]
positions expands rapidly because of the number of posHypergammon is a variant of backgammon in which sible dice rolls and the moves available on each turn. Replayers have only three checkers on the board, starting cent computer analysis has oered more insight on openwith one each on the 24-, 23- and 22-points. The game ing plays, but the midgame is reached quickly. After the
has been strongly solved, meaning that exact equities are opening, backgammon players frequently rely on some
established general strategies, combining and switching
available for all 32 million possible positions.[8][9]
among them to adapt to the changing conditions of a
Nackgammon is a variant of backgammon invented by game.
Nick Nack Ballard[10] in which players start with one
fewer checker on the six point and midpoint and two The most direct strategy is simply to avoid being hit,
trapped, or held in a stand-o. A running game decheckers on the 23 point.[9][11]
scribes a strategy of moving as quickly as possible around
Russian backgammon is a variant described in 1895 as: the board, and is most successful when a player is already
"...much in vogue in Russia, Germany, and other parts ahead in the race.[18] When this fails, one may opt for a
of the Continent....[12] Players start with no checkers on holding game, maintaining control of a point on ones
the board, and both players move in the same direction to opponents side of the board, called an anchor. As the
bear o in a common home board. In this variant, doubles game progresses, this player may gain an advantage by
are more powerful: four moves are played as in standard hitting an opponents blot from the anchor, or by rolling
backgammon, followed by four moves according to the large doubles that allow the checkers to escape into a rundierence of the dice value from 7, and then the player ning game.[18]
has another turn (with a few exceptions).[13]
The priming game involves building a wall of checkGul Bara and Tapa are also variants of the game popular ers, called a prime, covering a number of consecutive
in southeastern Europe and Turkey. The play will iterate points. This obstructs opposing checkers that are behind
among Backgammon, Gul Bara, and Tapa until one of the the prime. A checker trapped behind a six-point prime
players reaches a score of 7 or 5.
cannot escape until the prime is broken.[18] A particularly
Coan ki is an ancient Chinese board game that is very successful priming eort may lead to a blitz, which is
a strategy of covering the entire home board as quickly
similar.
as possible while keeping ones opponent on the bar. BePlakoto, Fevga and Portes are three versions of cause the opponent has diculty re-entering from the bar
backgammon played in Greece. Together, the three are or escaping, a player can quickly gain a running advantage
referred to as Tavli. [14]
and win the game, often with a gammon.[2]
Other minor variants to the standard game are com- A backgame is a strategy that involves holding two or
mon among casual players in certain regions. For in- more anchors in an opponents home board while being
stance, only allowing a maximum of ve checkers on any substantially behind in the race.[19] The anchors obstruct
point (Britain)[15][16] , or disallowing hit-and-run in your the opponents checkers and create opportunities to hit
home board (Middle East).[17]
them as they move home. The backgame is generally used

Strategy and tactics

only to salvage a game wherein a player is already significantly behind. Using a backgame as an initial strategy is
usually unsuccessful.[2][18]
Duplication refers to the placement of checkers such
that ones opponent needs the same dice rolls to achieve
dierent goals. For example, players may position all of
their blots in such a way that the opponent must roll a 2
in order to hit any of them, reducing the probability of
being hit more than once.[2][18] Diversication refers to
a complementary tactic of placing ones own checkers in
such a way that more numbers are useful.[18]

Backgammon set, 19th century

Many positions require a measurement of a players standing in the race, for example, in making a doubling cube
decision, or in determining whether to run home and begin bearing o. The minimum total of dice rolls needed
to move a players checkers around and o the board is
called the pip count. The dierence between the two
players pip counts is frequently used as a measure of the
leaders racing advantage. Players often use mental calcu-

4.2

Club and tournament play

lation techniques to determine pip counts in live play.[18]

in the USA, the State argued backgammon is a game of

Backgammon is played in two principal variations, chance and that it was therefore subject to Oregons strinMoney and Match play. Money play means that every gent gambling laws.
point counts evenly and every game stands alone, whether Paul Magriel was a key witness for the defence, contramoney is actually being wagered or not. Match play dicting Dr. Roger Nelson, the expert prosecution witmeans that the players play until one side scores (or ex- ness, by saying, Game theory, however, really applies
ceeds) a certain number of points. The format has a sig- to games with imperfect knowledge, where something is
nicant eect on strategy. In a match, the objective is concealed, such as poker. Backgammon is not such a
not to win the maximum possible number of points, but game. Everything is in front of you. The person who
rather to simply reach the score needed to win the match. uses that information in the most eective manner will
For example, a player leading a 9-point match by a score win.
of 7-5 would be very reluctant to turn the doubling cube, After the closing arguments, Judge Stephen S. Walker
as their opponent could take and make a costless redouble concluded that backgammon is a game of skill, not a
to 4, placing the entire outcome of the match on the cur- game of chance, and found the defendant, backgammon
rent game. Conversely, the trailing player would double tournament director Ted Barr, not guilty of promoting
very aggressively, particularly if he has chances to win a gambling.[22]
gammon in the current game. In money play, the theoretically correct checker play and cube action would never
vary based on the score.
4.2 Club and tournament play
Enthusiasts have formed clubs for social play of backgammon. Local clubs may hold informal gatherings, with
3 Cheating
members meeting at cafs and bars in the evening to
play and converse.[23][24] A few clubs oer additional serTo reduce the possibility of cheating, most good quality
vices, maintaining their own facilities or oering combackgammon sets use precision dice and a dice cup.[20]
puter analysis of troublesome plays.[25] Some club leadThis reduces the likelihood of loaded dice being used,
ers have noticed a recent growth of interest in backgamwhich is the main way of cheating in face-to-face play.[21]
mon, and attribute it to the games popularity on the
A common method of cheating online is the use of a comInternet.[26]
puter program to nd the optimal move on each turn; to
combat this, many online sites use move-comparison soft- A backgammon chouette permits three or more players to
ware that identies when a players moves resemble those participate in a single game, often for money. One player
of a backgammon program. Online cheating has there- competes against a team of all the other participants, and
positions rotate after each game. Chouette play often perfore become extremely dicult.[20]
mits the use of multiple doubling cubes.[2]

Social and competitive play

Backgammon clubs may also organize tournaments.

Large club tournaments sometimes draw competitors
from other regions, with nal matches viewed by hundreds of spectators.[27] The top players at regional tournaments often compete in major national and international
championships. Winners at major tournaments may receive prizes of tens of thousands of dollars.[28]

4.3 International competition

See also: List of World Backgammon champions
The rst world championship competition in backgammon was held in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1967. Tim Holland was declared the winner that year and at the tourMedieval players, from the 13th century Carmina Burana
nament the following year. For unknown reasons, there
was no championship in 1970, but in 1971, Tim Holland
again won the title. The competition remained in Las
4.1 Legality
Vegas until 1975, when it moved to Paradise Island in
the Bahamas. The years 1976, 1977 & 1978 saw dual
In State of Oregon v Barr, a 1982 court case pivotal to the World Championships, one in the Bahamas attended by
continued widespread organised playing of backgammon the Americans, and the European Open Championships

SOFTWARE

in Monte Carlo with mostly European players. In 1979,

Lewis Deyong, who had promoted the Bahamas World
Championship for the prior three years, suggested that
the two events be combined.[29] Monte Carlo was universally acknowledged as the site of the World Backgammon Championship and has remained as such for thirty
years.[30] The Monte Carlo tournament draws hundreds
of players and spectators, and is played over the course
of a week.[28]

5 Software

The World Backgammon Association (WBA) has been

holding the biggest backgammon Tour of the circuit since
2007, the "European Backgammon Tour" (EBGT). In
2011, the WBA collaborated with the online backgammon provider Play65 for the 2011 season of the European
Backgammon Tour and with Betfair in 2012. The 2013
season of the European Backgammon Tour featured 11
stops and 19 qualied players competing for 19,000
in a Grand Finale in Lefkosa, Northern Cyprus. WBA
also staged the US Open and other events around the
globe. WBA has contributed to a high stakes event called
Crowns Cup broadcast on several TV-channels.

A screen shot of GNU Backgammon, showing an evaluation and

rollout of possible moves

5.1 Internet play

Backgammon software has been developed not only to

play and analyze games, but also to facilitate play between humans over the internet. Dice rolls are provided
by random or pseudorandom number generators. Realtime online play began with the First Internet BackgamBy the 21st century, the largest international tourna- mon Server in July 1992.[33][34] It is the longest running
ments had established the basis of a tour for top pro- backgammon server on the internet.
fessional players. Major tournaments are held yearly
worldwide. PartyGaming sponsored the rst World Series of Backgammon in 2006 from Cannes and later the 5.2 Play and analysis
'Backgammon Million' tournament held in the Bahamas
in January 2007 with a prize pool of one million dollars, the largest for any tournament to date.[31] In 2008,
the World Series of Backgammon ran the worlds largest
international events in London, the UK Masters, the
biggest tournament ever held in the UK with 128 international class players; the Nordic Open, which instantly
became the largest in the world with around 500 players
in all ights and 153 in the Championship, and Cannes,
which hosted the Riviera Cup, the traditional followup tournament to the World Championships. Cannes
also hosted the WSOB Championship, the WSOB nale,
which saw 16 players play three-point shootout matches
for 160,000. The event was recorded for television in
Europe airing on Eurosport.

4.4

Gambling

When backgammon is played for money, the most common arrangement is to assign a monetary value to each
point, and to play to a certain score, or until either
player chooses to stop. The stakes are raised by gammons, backgammons, and use of the doubling cube.
Backgammon is sometimes available in casinos. Before the commercialization of neural network programs,
proposition bets on specic positions were very common
among backgammon players and gamblers.[32] As with
most gambling games, successful play requires a combination of luck and skill, as a single dice roll can sometimes
signicantly change the outcome of the game.[18]

Backgammon has been studied considerably by computer

scientists. Neural networks and other approaches have
oered signicant advances to software for gameplay and
analysis.
The rst strong computer opponent was BKG 9.8. It was
written by Hans Berliner in the late 1970s on a DEC
PDP-10 as an experiment in evaluating board game positions. Early versions of BKG played badly even against
poor players, but Berliner noticed that its critical mistakes were always at transitional phases in the game. He
applied principles of fuzzy logic to improve its play between phases, and by July 1979, BKG 9.8 was strong
enough to play against the reigning world champion Luigi
Villa. It won the match, 71, becoming the rst computer program to defeat a world champion in any board
game. Berliner stated that the victory was largely a matter of luck, as the computer received more favorable dice
rolls.[35]
In the late 1980s, backgammon programmers found more
success with an approach based on articial neural networks. TD-Gammon, developed by Gerald Tesauro of
IBM, was the rst of these programs to play near the expert level. Its neural network was trained using temporal
dierence learning applied to data generated from selfplay.[36] According to assessments by Bill Robertie and

6.1

Roman and Byzantine Empire

Kit Woolsey, TD-Gammons play was at or above the

level of the top human players in the world.[36] Woolsey
said of the program that There is no question in my mind
that its positional judgment is far better than mine.[36]
Tesauro proposed using rollout analysis to compare
the performance of computer algorithms against human players.[8] In this method, a Monte-Carlo evaluation
of positions is conducted (typically thousands of trials)
where dierent random dice sequences are simulated.
The rollout score of the human (or the computer) is the
dierence of the average game results by following the
selected move versus following the best move, then averaged for the entire set of taken moves.
Roman Ludus duodecim scriptorum board from the 2nd century,
Neural network research has resulted in three modern Aphrodisias
proprietary programs, JellyFish,[37] Snowie[38] and eXtreme Gammon[39] as well as the shareware BGBlitz[40]
and the free software GNU Backgammon.[41] These programs not only play the game, but oer tools for analyzing games and detailed comparisons of individual moves.
The strength of these programs lies in their neural networks weights tables, which are the result of months of
training. Without them, these programs play no better
than a human novice. For the bearo phase, backgammon software usually relies on a database containing precomputed equities for all possible bearo positions.

History

XXIIII XXIII XXII

II

III

XXI

XX

IIII

XVIIII XVIII

VI

VII

XVII

XVI

XV

XIIII

XIII

VIII

VIIII

XI

XII

A game of (tabula) played by Byzantine Emperor Zeno

in 480 and recorded by Agathias in 530 circa because of a very
unlucky dice throw for Zeno (red), as he threw 2, 5 and 6 and
was forced to leave eight pieces alone. See Zenos Game of
".[42]

6.1

Roman and Byzantine Empire

T (tabula) meaning table or board in Byzantine

Greek, is the oldest game with rules known to be nearly
identical to backgammon; it is described in an epigram of
Byzantine Emperor Zeno (AD 476481).[42] The board
was the same with 24 points, 12 on each side. As today each player had 15 checkers and used cubical dice
with sides numbered one to six.[42] The object of the
game, to be the rst to bear o all of ones checkers,

Herr Goeli, from the 14th century Codex Manesse

was also the same.[42][43] Hitting a blot, reentering a piece

from the bar, and bearing o, all followed the modern
rules. The only dierences with modern backgammon
were the use of an extra die (three rather than two) and
the starting of all pieces o the board (with them entering in the same way that pieces on the bar enter in modern backgammon).[44] The name is still used for
backgammon in Greece, where it is frequently played in
town plateias and cafes.[45]
The epigram of Zeno describes a particularly bad dice
roll the emperor had for his given position. Zeno, who
was white, had a stack of seven checkers, three stacks of
two checkers and two blots, checkers that stand alone on a

point and are therefore in danger of being put outside the

board by an incoming opponent checker. Zeno threw the
three dice with which the game was played and obtained
2, 5 and 6. As in backgammon, Zeno could not move
to a space occupied by two opponent (black) pieces. The
white and black checkers were so distributed on the points
that the only way to use all of the three results, as required
by the game rules, was to break the three stacks of two
checkers into blots, exposing them and ruining the game
for Zeno.[42][44]
The of Zenos time is believed to be a direct descendant of the earlier Roman Ludus duodecim scriptorum (Game of twelve lines) with that boards middle row of points removed, and only the two outer rows
remaining.[43] Ludus duodecim scriptorum used a board
with three rows of 12 points each with the 15 checkers
being moved in opposing directions by the two players
across three rows according to the roll of the three cubical dice.[42][43] Little specic text about the gameplay
of Ludus duodecim scriptorum has survived;[46] it may
have been related to the older Ancient Greek dice game
Kubeia. The earliest known mention of the game is in
Ovids Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love) (written between
1 BC and 8 AD).

6.2

Egypt and Iraq

Race board games involving dice have existed for millennia in the Near East and eastern Mediterranean, including the game senet of Ancient Egypt and the Royal Game
of Ur in Babylon. The ancient Egyptian game senet was
excavated, along with illustrations, from Egyptian royal
tombs dating to 3500 BC.[47] Though using a board that
is quite dierent from backgammon, it may be a predecessor. The Royal Game of Ur, originating in ancient
Mesopotamia before 2600 BC, may also be an ancestor
of modern-day table games like backgammon. It used
tetrahedral dice. In the modern Middle East, backgammon is a common feature of coeehouses.

6.3

HISTORY

composed around the late sixth or early seventh century AD. The use of dice for the
game is another indication of its Indic origin, since dice and gambling were a favorite
pastime in ancient India. The rules of the
game, however, rst appeared in the Middle
Persian text Wzarisn Catrang ud Nihisn New
Ardaxsr (Explanation of Chess and Invention
of Backgammon), composed in the sixth century during the rule of the Sasanian king Khosrow I (530571). The text assigns its invention to the Persian sage Wuzurgmihr (Persian)
Buzarjumihr/Bozorgmehr, who was the minister of King Khosrow I. According to the historical legend, the Indian king Dewisarm sends
his minister Taxritos to Persia with the game of
chess, and a letter challenging Sasanian King
Khosrow I to solve the riddle or rationale for
the game. Khosrow asks for three days to decipher the game, but initially no-one in the court
is able to make any progress. On the third day,
Khosrows minister, Wuzurgmihr, successfully
rises and explains the logic of the game. As
a reciprical challenge, Wuzurgmihr constructs
the game of backgammon and delivers it to
the Indian king who is unable to decipher the
game.[50]
In the 11th century Shahnameh, the Persian poet
Ferdowsi credits Burzoe with the invention of the tables game nard in the 6th century. He describes an
encounter between Burzoe and a Raja visiting from India. The Raja introduces the game of chess, and Burzoe
demonstrates nard, played with dice made from ivory and
teak.[51][52] Today, Nard is the name for the Persian version of backgammon, which has dierent initial positions
and objectives.[53] H. J. R. Murray details many versions
of backgammon; modern Nard is noted there as being the
same as backgammon and maybe dating back to 300500
AD in the Babylonian Talmud,[52] although others believe
the Talmud references the Greek race game Kubeia.

Persia (Iran)

See also: Nard (game)

Excavations at Shahr-e Sukhteh (Persian , literally The Burnt City) in Iran have shown that a board
race game existed there around 3000 BC. The artifacts
include two dice and 60 checkers, and the set is believed
to be 100 to 200 years older than the Royal Game of Ur.
On the board found at Shahr-e Sukhteh the elds are fashioned by the coils of a snake.[48][49]

6.4 Turkey
Backgammon, which is known as "tavla, from Byzantine
Greek ,[42] is still a very popular game in Turkey,
and it is customary to name the dice rolls with their
Persian number names: yek (1), d (2), se (3), cehar (4),
penc (5), e (6).

There are many variants of tavla in Turkey, where the

course of play changes drastically. The usual tavla is also
known as erkek tavlas meaning boys or mens tavla. The
Touraj Daryaee (2006)on the subject of the rst written other variant kz tavlas (meaning girls tavla) is a game
that depends only on the dice and involves no strategy.
mention of early precursors of backgammonwrites:
There is another variant called asker tavlas (meaning solThe game of backgammon is rst mendiers tavla) where the pieces are thrown to the board rantioned in Bhartrharis Vairagyasataka (p. 39),
domly and the opponents try to ip their pieces over the

6.7

Western Europe

Backgammon set from around the 10th century,China

Women playing tavla.

In Japan ban-sugoroku is thought to have been introduced

from China in the sixth century. As a gambling game it
opponents pieces to beat them.
was made illegal several times.[56] In the early Edo-era, a
The usual Tavla rules are same as in the other neighboring new and quick gambling game called Ch-han appeared
Arab countries and Greece, as established over a millen- and sugoroku quickly dwindled. By the 13th century the
board game Go, originally played only by the aristocracy,
nium ago.[42]
had become popular among the general public.[57]

6.5

Greece

6.7 Western Europe

Backgammon is popular among Greeks. It is a game in

which Greeks usually tease their opponent and they create a lively atmosphere. The game is called Tavli, derived in Byzantine times from the Latin word tabula.[45]
A game, almost identical to backgammon, called Tavli
(Byzantine Greek: ) is described in an epigram of
the Byzantine Emperor Zeno (AD 476481).[42] There
are three games of Tavli commonly played:
Portes: Set-up and rules the same as backgammon, except that backgammons count as gammons (2 points) and
there is no doubling cube.
Plakoto: A game where one checker can trap another
checker on the same point.
Fevga: A game where one checker by itself can block a
point.
These games are played one after another, in matches of
three, ve, or seven points.[54] Before starting a match,
each player rolls 1 die, and the player with the highest roll
picks up both dice and re-rolls (i.e. it is possible to roll
doubles for the opening move). Players use the same pair
of dice in turns. After the rst game, the winner of the
previous game starts rst. Each game counts as 1 point,
if the opponent has borne o at least 1 stone, otherwise
2 points (gammon/backgammon). There is no doubling
cube.

Brdspel (board game) set recovered from the warship Vasa,

which sank in 1628

The jeux de tables (Games of Tables), predecessors of

modern backgammon, rst appeared in France during
the 11th Century and became a favorite pastime of gamblers. In 1254, Louis IX issued a decree prohibiting
his court ocials and subjects from playing.[52][58] Tables games were played in Germany in the 12th century,
and had reached Iceland by the 13th century. In Spain,
the Alfonso X manuscript Libro de los juegos, completed
in 1283, describes rules for a number of dice and table
games in addition to its extensive discussion of chess.[59]
6.6 East Asia
By the 17th Century, tables games had spread to Sweden.
A wooden board and checkers were recovered from the
Backgammon was popular in China for a time and was wreck of the Vasa among the belongings of the ships
known as shuanglu ( ), with the book P Shung ( ) ocers. Backgammon appears widely in paintings of
written during the Southern Song (11271279) period this period, mainly those of Dutch and German painters
recording over ten variants - but over time it was replaced (Van Ostade, Jan Steen, Hieronymus Bosch, Bruegel and
others). Some surviving artworks are "Cardsharps" by
by other games such as xiangqi (Chinese chess).[55]

10

REFERENCES

Caravaggio (the backgammon board is in the lower left) 6.9 United States
and "The Triumph of Death" by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
(the backgammon board is in the lower right). Others are The most recent major development in backgammon was
the addition of the doubling cube. It was rst introduced
the Hell of Bosch and interior of an Inn by Jan Steen.
in the 1920s in New York City among members of gaming clubs in the Lower East Side.[62] The cube required
6.8 Great Britain
players not only to select the best move in a given position, but also to estimate the probability of winning
from that position, transforming backgammon into the
expected value-driven game played in the 20th and 21st
centuries.[62]
The popularity of backgammon surged in the mid-1960s,
in part due to the charisma of Prince Alexis Obolensky who became known as The Father of Modern
Backgammon.[63] Obe, as he was called by friends, cofounded the International Backgammon Association,[64]
which published a set of ocial rules. He also established the World Backgammon Club of Manhattan, devised a backgammon tournament system in 1963, then
organized the rst major international backgammon tournament in March, 1964, which attracted royalty, celebrities and the press. The game became a huge fad and
was played on college campuses, in discothques and at
country clubs;[63] stockbrokers and bankers began playing at conservative mens clubs.[65] People young and old
all across the country dusted o their boards and checkers. Cigarette, liquor and car companies began to sponsor tournaments and Hugh Hefner held backgammon parties at the Playboy Mansion.[66] Backgammon clubs were
formed and tournaments were held, resulting in a World
Championship promoted in Las Vegas in 1967.[29]
Most recently, the United States Backgammon Federation (USBGF) was organized in 2009 to repopularize the
game in the United States. Board and committee members include many of the top players, tournament directors and writers in the worldwide backgammon community. The USBGF has recently created a Standards of
Ethical Practice to address issues on which tournament
rules fail to touch.

7 See also
A Short Treatise on the Game of Backgammon, by Edmond
Hoyle

Backgammon notation
Category:Backgammon players

In the sixteenth century, Elizabethan laws and church regulations prohibited playing tables, but by the eighteenth
century backgammon was popular among the English
clergy.[52] Edmund Hoyle published A Short Treatise on
the Game of Back-Gammon in 1743; this described rules
and strategy for the game and was bound together with a
similar text on whist.[60]
In English, the word backgammon is most likely derived from back and Middle English "gamen", meaning
game or play. The earliest use documented by the
Oxford English Dictionary was in 1650.[61]

Tables (board game)

Table games

8 References
[1] Backgammon Luck vs Skill, backgammon.org
[2] Robertie, Bill (2002). Backgammon for Winners (Third
ed.). Cardoza. ISBN 1-58042-043-5.

11

[3] edited by Albert H. Morehead and Georey Mott-Smith.

(2001). Hoyles Rules of Games (Third Revised and Updated ed.). Signet. pp. 321330. ISBN 0-451-20484-0.
[4] Robertie, Bill. Backgammon Beavers. GammonVillage. Retrieved 2007-10-17.
[5] Robertie, Bill (2006). Backgammon for Serious Players
(Second ed.). Cardoza. pp. 1922. ISBN 0-940685-68X.
[6] Backgammon Glossary/Holland Rule. Bkgm.com. Retrieved 2009-02-26.
[7] The Backgammon Book, Chapter 11, O. Jacoby & J. R.
Crawford, 1970, Macmillan & Co
[8] Tesauro, G. (2002). Programming backgammon using self-teaching neural nets (PDF). Articial Intelligence
134 (1): 181199. doi:10.1016/S0004-3702(01)001102. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
[9] Strato, Michael. Backgammon Variants. Gammonlife.
Archived from the original on 13 September 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
[10] Thompson, Mark. Nackgammon. mindfun. Retrieved
2009-02-04.
[11] Woolsey, Kit (September 2001). Nackgammon. Gammonline. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
[12] Draughts and Backgammon, 1895, Berkeley
[13] Russian Backgammon. Bkgm.com. Archived from the
original on 13 March 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-26.
[14] "... The three games together are called 'Tavli' and are usually played one after the other in matches of three, ve, or
seven points..., Backgammon Galore! page
[15] http://www.bkgm.com/variants/OldEnglish.html
[16] Discussion at bkgm.com
[17] http://www.bkgm.com/faq/BasicRules.html#is_hit_
and_run_allowed_also_known_as_pick_and_pass_
[18] Magriel, Paul (1976). Backgammon. Quadrangle/The
New York Times Book Co. ISBN 0-8129-0615-2.
[19] http://www.bkgm.com/gloss/lookup.cgi?back+game
[20] Bray, Chris (2008). Backgammon for Dummies. John Wiley & Sons. p. 13 and 224. ISBN 978-0-470-69456-5.
[21] Harrington Green, Jonathan (1845). An exposure of the
arts and miseries of gambling. Redding. p. 203.
[22] The Trial (and Tribulations) of Oregon Promoter Ted
Barr, Backgammon Times 2 (2), 1982
[23] Tribes of SydneySydney Backgammon Club. The
Daily Telegraph (Australia). June 24, 2006. p. 95.
[24] Bray, Chris (June 29, 2002). Backgammon. The Independent (London). p. 50.
[25] Bray, Chris (November 25, 2000). Backgammon. The
Independent (London). p. 19.

[26] Laverty, Roy (May 16, 2003). Backgammon warriors

columnist, club member square o as board games popularity grows. Alameda Times-Star (Section: Bay Area
Living).
[27] Magriel, Paul (June 1, 1980). Backgammon: Before
Planning Big Attack, Be Sure to Cover Your Rear. The
New York Times, Late City Final Edition. pp. 50, section
1, part 2.
[28] Maxa, Rudy (September 6, 1981). Where the Rich And
the Royal Play Their GamesMonte Carlos Seven-Day
Backgammon Soiree With Countesses, Princes and Other
Sharpies. The Washington Post. p. H1.
[29] Play65, The History of the World Backgammon Championships
[30] Michael Crane (July 25, 2000). Backgammon News
World Championships 2000. Mind Sports Worldwide.
Archived from the original on 7 September 2006. Retrieved 2006-09-14.
[31] PartyGammon.com to Stage First Ever US$1 Million
Backgammon Tournament. PR Newswire (Lexis-Nexis).
July 10, 2006.
[32] Wachtel, Robert Backgammon Proposition backgammon.org
[33] Schneider, Andreas; et al. Brief history of FIBS. FIBS,
the First Internet Backgammon Server. Archived from the
original on 13 August 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-05.
[34] Schneider, Andreas. " Backgammon server available
NOW. Retrieved 2012-02-11.
[35] Berliner, Hans (January 1980). Backgammon program
beats world champ. ACM SIGART Bulletin (69): 69.
doi:10.1145/1056433.1056434.
[36] Tesauro, Gerald (March 1995). Temporal dierence
learning and TD-Gammon. Communications of the ACM
38 (3): 5868. doi:10.1145/203330.203343.
[37] Jellysh. Jellysh-backgammon.com. Retrieved 200902-26.
[38] Snowie
[39] eXtreme Gammon
[40] BGBlitz. BGBlitz. Archived from the original on 25
February 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-26.
[41] GNU Backgammon.
[42] Austin, Roland G. Zenos Game of ", The Journal
of Hellenic Studies 54:2, 1934. pp 202-205.
[43] Austin, Roland G. (February 1935). Roman Board
Games.
II.
Greece & Rome 4 (11): 7682.
doi:10.1017/s0017383500003119.
[44] Robert Charles Bell, Board and table games from many
civilizations, Courier Dover Publications, 1979, ISBN 0486-23855-5, pp. 3335.

12

[45] Koukoules, Phaidon (1948).

Vyzantinon Vios kai
Politismos 1. Collection de l'institut franais d'Athnes.
pp. 200204.
[46] Austin, Roland G. (October 1934). Roman Board
Games.
I.
Greece & Rome 4 (10): 2434.
doi:10.1017/s0017383500002941.
[47] Hayes, William C. (March 1946). Egyptian Tomb Reliefs of the Old Kingdom. The Metropolitan Museum of
Art Bulletin. New Series 4 (7): 170178.
[48] Worlds Oldest Backgammon Discovered In Burnt City.
Payvand News. December 4, 2004. Retrieved 2010-0507.

[64] The Father Of Modern Backgammon - GammonVillage

Magazine
[65] Bernard Weintraub (January 13, 1966). Urge to Play
Backgammon Sweeping Mens Clubs. The New York
Times. Retrieved 2010-09-10. A disk and dice game that
has been played in Middle Eastern streets for thousands
of years, in English homes for hundreds of years, and on
Bronx stoops for dozens of years has suddenly gripped the
bankers and brokers of old-line mens clubs all over town.
[66] Play65.com, World Backgammon Championships

9 External links

[49] Schdler, Dunn-Vaturi, Ulrich, Anne-Elizabeth.

BOARD GAMES in pre-Islamic Persia. Encyclopdia
Iranica. Retrieved 2010-05-07.

Backgammon at DMOZ

[50] Daryaee, Touraj (2006) in Backgammon in Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia ed. Meri, Josef W. &
Bacharach, Jere L, pp. 88-89. Taylor & Francis.

US Backgammon Federation

[51] Wilkinson, Charles K (May 1943). Chessmen and

Chess. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. New
Series 1 (9): 271279. doi:10.2307/3257111. JSTOR
3257111.
[52] Murray, Harold James Ruthven (1952). 6: RaceGames. A History of Board-Games Other than Chess.
Hacker Art Books. ISBN 0-87817-211-4.
[53] Backgammon, or Takheth Nard
[54] backgammon.
Internet, Second Edition.
2003.
Archived from the original on 13 August 2006. Retrieved
2006-08-05.
[55] [

[56] Origin of Sugoroku in Japan, sugoroku.net

[57] History of Go in Japan: part 3, Nihon Kiin, archived from
the original on 14 November 2007, retrieved 2007-11-02
[58] Lillich, Meredith Parsons (March 1983). The Tric-Trac
Window of Le Mans. The Art Bulletin 65 (1): 2333.
doi:10.2307/3050296. JSTOR 3050296.
[59] Wollesen, Jens T (1990). Sub specie ludi...: Text and
Images in Alfonso El Sabios Libro de Acedrex, Dados e
Tablas. Zeitschrift fr Kunstgeschichte 53 (3): 277308.
doi:10.2307/1482540. JSTOR 1482540.
[60] Allee, Sheila. A Foregone Conclusion: Fore-Edge Books
Are Unique Additions to Ransom Collection. The University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 2006-08-08.
[61] backgammon. The Oxford English Dictionary, Second
Edition. 1989. Retrieved 2006-08-05.
[62] Robertie, Bill (2002). 501 Essential Backgammon Problems (Second Printing ed.). Cardoza. p. 22. ISBN 158042-019-2.
[63] GammonLife

EXTERNAL LINKS

UK Backgammon Federation

Backgammon World Championship - Monte Carlo

Social Backgammon World competition

13

10
10.1

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

Backgammon Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backgammon?oldid=649545475 Contributors: Mav, Ap, Gareth Owen, BenBaker,

Scipius, Danny, XJaM, Fritzlein, SimonP, Ellmist, Imran, Hephaestos, BrianHansen, Cyde, MichaelJanich, Ellywa, Angela, BenKovitz,
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10.2

Images

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File:Backgammon-set_from_American_civil_war.jpeg
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Authors of the article
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10.3

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