Backgammon (11)

How to Play Backgammon

Sending Blots to the Bar

A single stone resting on a point is a target. It's called a blot, and when you land directly on an enemy blot it's called a hit. The blot is then retired to the bar. The blot must be entered and become a stone again before you can move any of your other pieces. Plus, the lonely blot must enter the enemy's home table on an open point. For example, if you roll a 5-2, and if points 5 and 2 in the enemy's home table are open, you can choose either one and place your blot there. If you placed it on point 5, you can now move it two points.

If one of those points is occupied by a single stone of the enemy's, you can hit it and send it to the bar. If none of the points are open, if your enemy's stones have crowded all available space, you are shut out and you don't even get to throw the dice. Your blot remains on the bar and you can't move any other. Your turn is over.

When you've collected all of your stones in your home table, you can bear off: that is, remove all your stones from the game, in the order determined by the dice. If the number you rolled is higher than the number of points you have yet to travel, you simply bear off the piece that's farthest away.

If you're hit after you've started to bear off, your stone becomes a blot on the bar. You must enter it and bring it around to your home table before you can go back to bearing off.

Next: Gammon and Backgammon

Backgammon (10)

How to Play Backgammon

Like a Rolling Stone

After you've thrown the dice to begin your turn, you can apply both numbers to one stone or each number separately to two stones. If, for example, you throw a 5 and a 4, you can move one piece a distance of nine points, or you can move one piece five and a second piece four.

Note: When you use both die numbers for one stone, the points must be open for each die value, just as they need to be open for moving two stones separately.

If you throw a doublet (two identical dice), say a 3 and a 3, you play that number four times rather than twice: you can move one piece 12 points, or one piece nine points and one piece three, or two pieces six points each, or four pieces three points each.

A stone cannot land on a point occupied by two or more of the opponent's stones. You are not allowed to make that move, even if you have only one piece left and there is no other move you can make. A point occupied by two more stones is an indestructible fortress; that point is said to be closed or made. However, though you can't share a point with enemy pieces, you can jump over them.

Any number of pieces of the same color can rest on one point. If necessary they are piled on top of each other. This keeps one side's pieces from encroaching on the other side's.

Moves are always compulsory, even when it's in your best interests to stand still. If you can only use one of the two numbers you rolled, then you must do so. You must always try to use the higher number.

Next: Sending Blots to the Bar

Backgammon (9)

How to Play Backgammon?

Backgammon is played by two players on a special board with 15 pieces to a side. The pieces making up each side are called stones. Though they may be of any color, the darker-colored pieces are called Black while the lighter ones are called White.

The board is divided into two halves, or tables, by a partition running down the center. This is called the bar. The outer table is on your left, the inner table is on your right. In each table there are six points (long, thin triangles).
The pieces move according to your throw of the two dice. The players roll the dice to see who goes first, with the higher roll winning. (If the numbers are the same, you just roll again.)

The player with the higher number uses that for his first turn, if the rules are set that way. From then on turns alternate, and you always throw the dice to begin your turn. (The exception to this is when you are shut out, which can occur when your blot is on the bar. If your enemy's stones have crowded all available space so no possible points are open, you don't get to throw the dice and your turn is over.)

The object of the game seems odd at first: You win by being the first player to transport all of your stones off the board! To do that you must first get all of your stones into your inner, or home, table. Once they're all safely home, you can proceed to move them off the board. Pieces move from point to point.

Next: Backgammon - rolls like a Rolling Stone.

Backgammon (8)

8th History of Backgammon:
Pump Up the Volume with the Americans

8. Pump Up the Volume with the Americans: Americans couldn't figure out a way to improve on Chess, but in 1925 an American innovator whose name is apparently lost to us developed the concept of doubling. Doubling revived Backgammon and led to a worldwide Backgammon renaissance that continues today.

The word Backgammon, incidentally, comes from the Middle English gamen, meaning "game." It's thought that the name derives from the pieces occasionally having to go and reenter the board. In Scotland, the game is called Gammon; in Spain, Tablas Reales (The Royal Tables); and in Italy, Tavole Reale (ditto). In France, the name is Trictrac and in Germany, Puff, though how these names strayed so far from the Roman Tabula is not clear.

So, this will be the last post about history of Backgammon (maybe a bit too much of history about Backgammon!!!!). Coming next will be "How to Play Backgammon?".

Backgammon (7)

7th History of Backgammon:
Edmond Hoyle and the modern Backgammon

7. Catch Edmond Hoyle's Attention: Hoyle died in 1769, long before most of the games played today were invented. He wrote books on just five games in his lifetime, so the odds are against most games making this connection. Happily for Backgammon, Hoyle was not only a devotee of the game, he also had many ideas about how it should be played. Edmond Hoyle, in fact, turned out to be the Alexander Cartwright of Backgammon. Just as Cartwright in the 1840s codified the laws of baseball, Hoyle in 1746 did the same for Backgammon in his first book of games. Most of Hoyle's rules of play are still in force (as are most of Cartwright's).


The modern game began with Hoyle, who had developed considerable clout in the game world by 1746. When he put together the hodge-podge of rules governing the game and decreed, among other things, that doublets should be played twice and that the scoring should include such subdivisions as backgammon, gammon, and hits, people listened. And played.

Next: Pump Up the Volume with the Americans (This will be the last post regarding about some history of Backgammon.)

Backgammon (6)

6th History of Backgammon:
Backgammon in Europe

6. Conquer Europe: The Persian/Muslim Nard and the Roman Tabula met in France in the 11th century. The third dice was eliminated, but the Roman name was retained, as can be seen from the forms Tabula took as it marched across the continent: in Italy, Tavola; in Spain, Tablas; in Middle English, Tavel, then Tables; and so on. Backgammon (or Tables) began appearing in the literature of the period almost at once, by which we can track its progress even to distant Iceland (which it reached late in the 13th century).

The first European book to focus on Backgammon appeared in Spain in 1283. This book was primarily about Chess, and was compiled by scholars working under the direction of King Alfonso of Castile ("Alfonso the Wise").

As with most of the games that entered Europe in this era, Backgammon was taken up by the nobility and was soon competing with Chess for the position of most-popular game (both games were eventually dethroned by playing cards). As Backgammon filtered down to the masses, the Church tried to ban or at least contain it. These efforts failed. By the 1700s, Backgammon was the favorite pastime among vicars in the English countryside!

Innkeepers throughout Europe were soon providing Backgammon boards and sets to their customers, a tradition that goes back to the Roman empire. Obolensky and James report on a wall painting found in the excavation of Pompeii: "In one panel, a game is in process, and an argument has ensued over points. In the second, an innkeeper is throwing the two battling players out of his tavern."

Next: Edmond Hoyle and the modern Backgammon.

Backgammon (5)

5th History of Backgammon:
Backgammon and Arab

5. Ride Along with the Arabs: Typically in the history of games, the Arabs, after their conquest of Persia in the 7th century, learned all the games the Persians learned from the Indians, who may or may not have learned them from the Chinese. The Arabs raised the level of play in these games to unimagined heights and wrote the first books about them. They then invaded Spain and Sicily, fought off the Crusaders, and traded with the Venetians, all of which led to an exchange of ideas and games.


The Arabs adopted Backgammon immediately, but the Islamic religious authorities were troubled by the game and its gambling aspect (just as Chess had troubled them with its "graven images", which are forbidden by the Koran). Chess survived in the Islamic world because the players switched from the fanciful pieces used by the Persians to abstract pieces with no resemblance to people, animals, or anything else. Backgammon couldn't do without its dice, and in the 8th century it was banned. This ban was not successful. Though the Islamic courts threatened players with various penalties, the game continued to flourish -- a lesson the Catholic Church was fated to learn all over again a few centuries later.

The first book about Backgammon was written by an Arab of the 9th century.

Next: Backgammon in Europe.

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