![]() The τάβλι of Emperor Zeno's time is believed to be a direct descendant of the earlier Roman Ludus duodecim scriptorum ('Game of twelve lines') with the board's middle row of points removed, and only the two outer rows remaining. The name Tavla ( τάβλη) is still used in Greece for various tables games, which are frequently played in town plateias and cafes. Modern backgammon follows the same rules as tabula for hitting a blot and for bearing off and the rules for re-entering pieces in backgammon are the same as those for initially entering pieces in tabula. ![]() However, unlike modern Western backgammon, there were three cubical dice not two, no bar nor doubling die, and all counters started off the board. The overall aim was to be first to bear one's pieces off the board had the typical tables layout, with 24 points, 12 on each side and there were 15 counters per player. The earliest identifiable tables game, Tabula, meaning 'table' or 'board', is described in an epigram of Byzantine Emperor Zeno (AD 476–491). Roman Ludus duodecim scriptorum board from the 2nd century, Aphrodisias 531–79), who is credited with the invention of the game. 224–41), founder of the Sasanian dynasty, whereas another ( Wičārišn ī čatrang ud nihišn ī nēw-ardaxšēr) attributes it to Bozorgmehr Bokhtagan, the vizier of Khosrow I (r. The Persian tables game of nard or nardšir emerged somewhere between the 3rd and 6th century AD, one text ( Kār-nāmag ī Ardaxšēr ī Pāpakān) linking it with Ardashir I (r. Various other board games spanning the 10th to 7th centuries BC have been found throughout modern day Iraq, Syria, Israel, Egypt and western Iran. The Royal Game of Ur from 2600 BC may also be an ancestor or intermediate of modern-day table games like backgammon and is the oldest game for which rules have been handed down. Although its precise rules are unknown, it has been termed the Game of 20 Squares and Irving Finkel has suggested a possible reconstruction. The history of board games can be traced back nearly 5,000 years to archaeological discoveries of the Jiroft culture, located in present-day Iran, the world's oldest game set having been discovered in the region with equipment comprising a dumbbell-shaped board, counters and dice. One of the gameboards found by Sir Leonard Woolley in the Royal Cemetery at Ur. In other parts of the world, different tables games such as Nard or Nardy are better known. By the 19th century, however, backgammon had spread to Europe, where it rapidly superseded other tables games like Trictrac in popularity, and also to America, where the doubling cube was introduced. In fact, the earliest known mention of backgammon was in a letter dated 1635, when it was emerging as a variant of the popular mediaeval Anglo-Scottish game of Irish the latter was described as a better game. The optional use of a doubling cube allows players to raise the stakes during the game.Ĭontrary to popular belief, backgammon is not the oldest board game in the world, nor are all tables games variants of backgammon. With each roll of the dice, players must choose from numerous options for moving their pieces and anticipate possible counter-moves by the opponent. While the dice may determine the outcome of a single game, the better player will accumulate the better record over a series of many games. The achievement of this while the opponent is still a long way behind results in a triple win known as a backgammon, hence the name of the game.īackgammon involves a combination of strategy and luck (from rolling dice). The objective of the game is to move the fifteen pieces around the board and be first to bear off, i.e., remove them from the board. The backgammon table pieces move along twenty-four ' points' according to the roll of two dice. īackgammon is a two-player game of contrary movement in which each player has fifteen pieces known traditionally as men (short for 'tablemen'), but increasingly known as 'checkers' in the US in recent decades, analogous to the other board game of Checkers. The earliest record of backgammon itself dates to 17th-century England, being descended from the 16th-century game of Irish. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back nearly 5,000 years to the regions of Mesopotamia and Persia. Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards.
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