Backgammon is one of those games that feels like it's always existed. It's been played for thousands of years across dozens of cultures, and yet it still feels fresh. The basic idea — race your opponent's pieces off the board — is simple enough for a child to grasp, but the game has enough depth to keep experts busy for a lifetime. Here's how it got to where it is today.
The Ancient World
The oldest backgammon-like board we've found is from southeastern Iran, in a place called Burnt City. It's about 5,200 years old. The board was made of agate and turquoise, with 20 slots on each side and five pieces per player. Sound familiar? It should — that's basically backgammon.
A few hundred years later, another board showed up in the Royal Tombs of Ur, in what's now southern Iraq. This one had 12 slots per side, seven pieces per player, and dice made of bone or ivory. The Sumerians, who built that city, also gave us the wheel, written language, and the first known number system. They were busy people.
From Mesopotamia, the game spread everywhere — India, China, Egypt, Greece, Rome. Every culture had its own version with different names. The Persians called it Nard or Nardy. The Egyptians played Senet. The Greeks had Petteia. The Romans called it Tabula. The boards and rules varied, but the core idea was always the same: move your pieces, block your opponent, get everything off first.
Modern Backgammon Takes Shape
The modern version of backgammon appeared in 17th-century England, evolving from a game called Tables. Tables had an interesting rule: if you rolled doubles, you played them twice. And if your opponent couldn't get any pieces off the board, you won double or triple the stakes. That's where the term "backgammon" comes from — probably from the Welsh words for "back" and "battle."
Edmond Hoyle published the first written rules and strategy tips in 1745, and they're still largely valid today. He wrote about probability, tactics, and positional play. He also gave us terms we still use — "blot" for a single exposed piece, "hit" for capturing one, "bear off" for removing pieces from the board, and "gammon" for winning before your opponent bears off any pieces.
The doubling cube showed up in New York in the 1920s, invented by an unknown player. It changed everything. Suddenly, backgammon wasn't just about moving pieces — it was about managing risk and reading your opponent. The cube has six faces marked 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64. At any point, a player can offer to double the stakes. The other player can accept or decline. If they accept, they take control of the cube and can redouble later. If they decline, they lose the game at the current stakes. It's brilliant in its simplicity.
In 1931, Wheaton Vaughan and his backgammon committee at the New York Racquet and Tennis Club wrote a standardized set of rules that the world still uses. They cleaned up a lot of inconsistencies — how to set up the board, how to handle illegal moves, how to use automatic doubles and beavers, how to score matches and tournaments.
Variations and Pop Culture
Backgammon has spawned dozens of variations around the world, each with its own flavor:
- Acey-deucey is huge among American sailors. Roll a 1-2 and you get to choose any dice combination and play it twice.
- Nackgammon, invented by Nack Ballard, starts with a slightly different setup — two extra pieces on each side's 23-point.
- Hypergammon strips it down to just three pieces per player on a normal board.
- Tavla is the Turkish version, with its own rules for hitting and entering.
- Gul bara, popular in the Middle East, doesn't allow hitting at all — pieces can stack on the same point.
- Plakoto, the Greek version, also has no hitting, but lets you pin your opponent's pieces.
The game has also appeared in some notable cultural moments:
- The Egyptian Book of the Dead shows someone playing Senet with a goddess.
- Homer's Odyssey mentions Penelope's suitors playing Petteia.
- The Talmud forbids playing Nard on the Sabbath or with bone dice.
- The Canterbury Tales describes a game of Tables between the Pardoner and the Summoner.
- In the James Bond film Octopussy, Bond and Kamal Khan play backgammon with loaded dice and a Fabergé egg as the stake.
- On Seinfeld, Kramer and Newman play backgammon with human lives as the stakes.
The Rules in Brief
Backgammon's rules are easy to learn but hard to master. The board is divided into four quadrants, each with six points numbered 1 to 24. Each player has 15 pieces that move in opposite directions according to two dice rolls. The goal: get all your pieces into your home board (the last six points) and then bear them off. First player to do that wins.
Each player rolls one die to determine who goes first — higher number wins. Then you move based on both dice. You can move one piece by both numbers, or two different pieces by each number separately. If you roll doubles, you play all four numbers.
You can hit an opponent's lone piece (a blot) and send it to the bar. That piece has to re-enter from your opponent's home board before you can move anything else. You can only bear off pieces once all of them are in your home board, and you need to roll the exact number to bear off from a specific point — unless all your higher points are empty.
The doubling cube is your third weapon. You can offer to double the stakes before rolling the dice. If your opponent accepts, they take the cube and can redouble later. If they decline, you win the game at the current stakes. The cube can go all the way up to 64.
Win a single game and you get one point. Win a gammon — bearing off all your pieces while your opponent hasn't borne off any — and you get two points. Win a backgammon — your opponent still has pieces on the bar or in your home board — and you get three.