Backgammon: A Miscellany

Updated: Nov 1

Some history, trivia, and basic knowledge about "The Cruelest Game."

"Life, like backgammon, is constant decision-making under uncertainty." - Neil Kazaross

Painting is "Affengesellschaft beim Spiel", 1600s & artist unknown. Apparently this is considered a predecessor to the (in)famous "Dogs Playing Poker" paintings.

Before we get started with this miscellany, I'd suggest reading a primer on how to play backgammon, one of the oldest games in existence and one that's both easy to learn and difficult to master. If you need something more quick, the general gist is this (images are from the U.S. Backgammon Federation's page on basic rules):

Two players put two sets of checkers (usually some combo of red, black, and white) in the following fashion:

Both players need to move their pieces to the other side of the board into their home quarter so they can cast off checkers to win. This is based on rolling a pair of dice and moving according to how each die lands (ex. a 2 and a 6 means you move based on 2 spaces and 6 spaces). The flow looks like this:

The player that casts all of their checkers off the board wins the game and gets points, depending on where the losing player is at on the board when finished (more on that later).

Simple, right? Well, Yes but No. This is due to the fact that while the basics are easy to understand (and I only gave the absolute bare-bones, so you should definitely read the linked primer before playing), there's also a whole lot of other things involved with this game. When played right, this game often ranks with chess for strategy but is more infuriating at times due to the amount of luck required when rolling the dice. That's not mentioning the amount of terminology involved...

We'll cover some of that during this miscellany but, as noted before, there are other books and websites to learn how to play backgammon. Today we're focused on the other things - history, quotes, and other trivia related to the "cruelest game."

"Backgammon is probably both the oldest and the most youthful game in the world." - Lelia Hattersley

Backgammon has its roots in a game played over 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia but the current version developed sometime around 1600s England (known as "Irish" at the time). As with all things popular, it had its moment under the disapproving gaze of religious and political authorities as Something Wicked (much like coffee at that time...) but lost its sinful reputation by the Victorian era. Around the 1920s, an innovation that's crucial to current play came about: the doubling cube, which helped solved the issue of games going on for too long and thus sped up the ability to score points through a wager system. Offer your opponent to double the points and if they refuse, they forfeit the game and you get 2 points automatically. Along with the new concept of playing chouette ("screech owl", meaning 2-player teams on each side), the doubling cube reinvigorated the game's popularity and defined how we play the game today.

Another important round of popularity occurred during the 1960s, due to a charismatic Russian émigré named Prince Alexis Obolensky. It was here that the game got its reputation as a game associated as a certain kind of Swinging '60s holdover, since it was played in country clubs, discos, college campus coffeehouses, and other chic hangouts. This was also when backgammon got its official rules codified by the International Backgammon Association. While the fad aspect faded after the 1970s, there was another push around 2009 by the newly-formed United States Backgammon Federation to drum up interest. While still not exactly firing up the mainstream, there's a considerable amount of people invested in the game today and can be found playing the game enthusiastically both in person and online at sites like Backgammon Galaxy.

"Backgammon is truly the cruellest game. [..] Save the emotions for Valentine's Day, they have no place over a backgammon board." - Chris Bray

As mentioned before, the game's easy to learn but the number of intricacies make actually knowing it well quite daunting. Part of that has to do with the huge glossary of terms developed over time. To make things a little more manageable, here's a slimmed down version to help while you get started (courtesy of Emil Svennson):

Two expert players will never disagree. Knowledge at Backgammon, after all, is finite. - Georges Mabardi

According to Just 10 Facts' page on backgammon, the longest backgammon game ever played occurred in 1978 and lasted 121 hours, 10 minutes. Other tidbits include (courtesy of Gamesver):

TD-Gammon, a software that's good enough to beat most human players, was designed by Gerald Tesauro in 1992.
The first appearance of backgammon in movies seems to be 1983's James Bond entry Octopussy.
Backgammon gets its name from the Middle English words baec ("back") and gamen ("game") and appears as a number of other "Tables" games when played in the ancient world.
Those monkeys you saw at the beginning aren't the only place to find backgammon in art - famous paintings showing the game include “The Garden of Earthly Delights” by Hieronymus Bosch, “The Triumph of Death” by Pieter Brueghel, and the “Backgammon Fight” by Jan Steen.
Backgammon and its predecessors have also been mentioned in literary works such as The Canterbury Tales and Love's Labor Lost.

At one point, there was a Norwegian player who made a humorous set of "10 Commandments" when it comes to backgammon. Based on the translation by Morten Wang, these are:

Thou shalt have no other games before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee an image of me being a simple, accidental or tiresome game. For I let punishment for thy sins come unto thee in thy third or fourth tournament of them that hate me, and shewing mercy in thousands of tournaments of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Thou shalt not misuse thy cube, for the dice will not hold him guiltless who doubleth early.
Remember the tournament day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou read thy theory, and play for money, but the seventh day is the tournament day. Then shalt thou play not for money, but for honour and rating.
Honour thy club and thy federation, that thy days of playing upon the land be many.
Thou shalt not roll 5-2.
Thou shalt not break thy prime.
Thou shalt not steal pips.
Thou shalt not play with false dice.
Thou shalt not covet thy opponent's board. Thou shalt not covet thy opponent's prime, nor his advanced anchor, nor his rolls of the dice, nor any thing that is thy opponent's.

For an even longer set of observations, you can also consult Phil Simborg's "Laws of Backgammon," which include:

It's easy to tell when you have a great roll—the dice will be cocked.
Buying your opponent drinks is the best investment you'll ever make.
The secret of success is to always play worse players (and roll great).
It's easy to make a great play: just think of a really dumb play, and do the opposite.
He who bears off last, laughs last.
If you want someone to really hate you, right after you win a game, point out what they did wrong.
Anyone who isn't superstitious hasn't played backgammon.
A drunk opponent is the best opponent.

In a backgammon match, anybody has a reasonable chance to beat anybody else. The player who doesn't respect his opponent is likely to get greedy, to take risks when he shouldn't and to fail to take risks when he should. - Walter Trice

When it comes to strategies, there are entire books written about how players can gain the best advantage over their opponents. For beginners, though, there are generally five main strategies - these are:

The running game: Simplest strategy that involves just getting the checkers to your home faster than your opponent but depends on the weight of the dice rolls to succeed.
The blitz: Aggressive strategy that targets your opponent's weakest positions but also runs the risk of them returning the favor if not careful.
Priming: Considered essential by expert players, this strategy focuses on making "primes" (connected series of checkers) to build a wall to block your opponent from leaving your home board when they can't roll a five or a six.
The holding game: This strategy is mostly about being obnoxious and keeping one or two checkers in your opponent's home board to keep them from casting off easily or making them think they won't be sent to the bar at any point.
The back game: This is the holding game beefed up with more checkers hanging out in your opponent's home board.

If you've started and want to read more about strategies and other tips and techniques regarding get the most out of your game, the backgammon magazine Chicago Point has all 40 columns written by backgammon board builder Takao Morioka during the late 1980s and early 1990s. To close out this miscellany, here's the first one he wrote in 1987:

Backgammon: A Battlefield

Backgammon is a highly tactical game involving percentages, probabilities, and the element of threat. It is a visual game where a difficult position may have more than one “obvious” solution depending on how the position is perceived and whether emotions are clouding one’s perception.

Gamblers will love the action; but unlike poker, they will have difficulty in muscling wins by bluffing, for the game is always on the table. Chess players who enjoy the skill of maneuvering and trapping must learn to accept the unpredictable changes that occur due to the dice. A psychologist may enjoy the unpenned emotions that surface from usually calm people during the course of a game.

Pitfalls—Confused Logic Is Worse Than No Logic

As you start to learn backgammon, you will make a lot of assumptions and put them away as rules. Be very careful before you reach any conclusions because if they are inaccurate, you will have problems trying to correct them later on.

Try to examine and reexamine your “truths” and keep them open to revision. Many players have bad learning habits; they constantly jump to “cast in stone” conclusions. Once a player fails to question his own thought process, he will absorb so many false ideas that the good plays will be difficult to separate from the bad ones.

It’s amazing how some players are able to adapt to their false assumptions in creative ways. That’s the intrigue of a game where “perfection” is unobtainable. Perhaps the measure of success is a question of how well you can deal with the distortions (both visual and emotional) that are a part of your game.

Backgammon is [...] a gambling game which requires both luck and skill. [...] Luck keeps the game interesting, but skillfull play will always be rewarded. - Paul Magriel