The Backgammon Revolution, Part 1
"These two shall sit at Tables...,” describes The Codex Exoniensis of the game ‘Tables,’ known commonly today as backgammon. Written in 1025 AD, this marks the first appearance in English print of the game that would so deftly envelop the gaming world. Surprisingly, despite the age-old notation in The Codex, backgammon is actually substantially older. The world’s oldest game is now better than ever.Backgammon games have been played for thousands of years and in almost every part of the world. Wooden gaming boards and 3 x 10 squares have been found extensively in archaeological sites in Egypt, while the Romans left a great deal of evidence of a game they called ‘Ludus Duodecim Scriptorum,’ or the game of the twelve lines. In Asia, the backgammon-like game ‘Nard’ appeared around 800 AD in South West Asia and its variants are still played today throughout the continent. Backgammon’s predecessors have also been found in Japan—there called Sugoroko—while its European dominance was sparked by the Arab occupation of Sicily in 902 AD. Nard or Tables was played throughout Europe extensively during the middle ages and became a very popular form of entertainment in English Taverns.
Moving past antiquity, the start of modern backgammon is marked by the introduction of the doubling cube. First used in the 1920s in New York, this cube enhanced the element of skill in backgammon, further increasing the game’s popularity. Despite this, backgammon was still very much a hobby left to the wealthy and it wasn’t until the 1970s that its appeal really caught on with the general public. Today, backgammon has firmly reclaimed its prominence as one of the most popular games worldwide, thanks in part to its newfound online presence, which has opened the door for millions of people to learn and play the game.
Backgammon 101
Backgammon is a two player game, the object of which is to be the first player to move all of their checkers into their home board and then off the table. It is played on a board consisting of 24 narrow triangles (called ‘points’), which alternate in color and are grouped into two, each having twelve triangles. The halves are formed by the two opposing sides of the board, with a vertical band down the middle called the ‘bar,’ where the checkers are placed when hit.The points are numbered from one to 24, with checkers always moving from high to low numbers. As the players move their checkers in opposite directions, the one point for one player will be the 24 point for the other. Each player has 15 checkers and these begin the game with two positioned on the 24 point, five on the 13 point, three on the eight point, and five on the six point in their home board. A pair of dice determines the number of moves available to the players, and a doubling cube with numbers 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 on its faces is used to keep track of the stakes currently being played for.
Two timers govern backgammon. The local timer counts down 45 seconds in normal speed games, 30 seconds in fast games, 15 seconds in express games, in which time the player must make a move. This is reset after each move and, if it expires, the global timer starts ticking.
The global timer is set to three minutes in normal speed games, two minutes in fast games, one minute in express games, and only starts ticking when the local timer expires. This global timer governs the entire game. For example, in the case of a game at normal speed, if the player neither moves any checkers nor makes any transactions during the 45 seconds of the local timer, the global timer will start. If the global timer runs out, the player in control of the board will be declared the loser, and points will be awarded to his opponent according to the doubling cube. This will be counted as losing the game, regardless of the current state of the game board.
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