History of Backgammon
Throughout the course of history many ancient civilisations have played board games similiar to backgammon, whereby the moves made were controlled by the throwing of dice.
Egyptians played a game called Senet which was played throughout the period of Egyptian dynastic history, The board consists of 30 squares arranged in three rows of ten and the number of pieces per player varied from five and seven, eventually becoming five in the New Kingdom (second millennium BC).
Mesopotamia had a game that closely resembled modern board games this was known as the Royal Game of Ur. This is one of the oldest complete set of board-gaming equipment ever found it involves a board consisting of 20 squares, some decorated with rosettes, and arranged in three horizontal rows of which the central row contains eight squares and the others four at one end and two at the other. Each player moved seven pieces in accordance with the throw of three tetrahedral (pyramidal) dice. It was excavated by Sir Leonard Woolley in 1926-7.
Iran also laid claim to a board game which was uncovered in archealogical digs at the 'Burnt City' where dice and 60 pieces of a set dating to 3000bc some 200 years older than the Ur set
Greeks and Romans
The ancient Greeks were known to play very similiar games to backgammon The game referred to as Grammai (meaning lines scored on a surface), later as Diagrammismos is a likely candidate.
The Romans had a game called Ludos Duodecim Scriptorum (the game of twelve lines) this used a board with 3 rows of 12 points each, and the pieces a more obvious ancestor of modern backgammon boards is the game known as tabula (see diagram) the Roman equivalent of Backgammon, was played throughout the Roman Empire up to and beyond the beginning of the Christian era
There is an early description of tabula by Agathias of Myrine (527–567), who describing a game played the Byzantine Emperor Zeno (476–481), states that he went from a strong position to a very weak one after an unfortunate dice roll.
It is believed that Tabula was a later refinement of ludus duodecim scriptorum, with the board's middle row of points removed, and only the two outer rows remaining. Played on a board nearly identical to a modern backgammon board. Played by two players who had 15 pieces each, and moved them in opposing directions around the board, according to the roll of three dice. A piece resting alone in a space on the board was vulnerable to being hit.
French and English connections
The Persian Game of Nard entered Europe either through the 8th-century Moorish conquest of Spain, or the Italian trading route, or both. the 14th-century saw an influx in the arrival of cards and card games, another import from the Arabic east. Games of the Backgammon type flourished throughout the European continent during this period, largely under the generic title of Tabulae in the written language (Latin) and its equivalents in the nascent national languages, such as Tables in French and English, Tavole in Italian, (Wurf-)Zabel in German, Tavli in Greek, and so on.
Jeux de tables are without doubt the ancestors of the modern backgammon boards they first appeared in France during the 11th century and quickly became a gamblers favourite pastime.
By 1254 King Louis IX was so concerned that he issued a proclamation banning court officials and subjects from playing.
By the 18th century backgammon was very popular in England particular amongst the clergy Edmund Hoyle published a short treatise on the game of backgammon in 1743 this laid down the rules and strategy for the modern game.
The 20th century renaissance of Backgammon dates from the introduction of the doubling die in one of the American clubs in the 1920s. This stake-raising device has six sides numbered 2-4-8-16-32-64. Play starts for a single stake. Either player, when about to throw, may offer to double the stake by passing the die with its ‘2’ uppermost to the opponent’s side of the board. If the opponent resigns, the doubler wins a single game; if not, play continues at doubled stake. Subsequently, the doubled player, on his turn to throw, may offer to quadruple by passing the die with its ‘4’ uppermost across the table... and so on, following the same principle. It is still possible to win a “gammon”, thereby doubling the amount shown on the doubling die, but the thrice-valued “backgammon”, which gave the game its name when first introduced in the 17th century, is now generally disregarded, except by prior agreement.
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