If I was a complete beginner, I would probably wonder how backgammon became so popular, with websites, books, and tournaments. This is the history of modern backgammon, beginning in the 1920’s and leading up to now…
The Spark (1920-1926)
Modern backgammon began its march to prominence in the early 1920’s in New York City. The first significant contribution to the game was the introduction of the doubling cube. Another was the development of a game called chouette in which one player played against a group of players. These two events took place in the wake of World War I. New York became a hotbed of activity, and the game began to acquire a following outside the city.
The Book That Launched Backgammon (1927)
In 1927, Henry Holt & Company published a book titled “Modern Backgammon” by an unnamed author. It was 110 pages long and is believed to have been the first book on backgammon to have been published in the United States. The book featured the first serious treatment of the doubling cube and chouette. It wasn’t a huge bestseller, but it was only the beginning.
The Takeoff (1928-1940)
From 1928 through the 1940’s, backgammon began to gain greater and greater acceptance. Articles about the game began to appear in magazines such as Vanity Fair and Collier’s. It began to be regarded as a proper diversion for the rich and famous. During this time, there was also a boom in books about backgammon, mostly aimed at beginners.
The War (1940-1964)
With the outbreak of World War II, backgammon began a steep decline. It survived on a small basis in a handful of private clubs in New York City, Miami, and London. It was mostly played by enthusiasts who kept it alive through World War II.
The First Signs of an Awakening (1953)
The first state open backgammon tournament was held in Indianapolis in 1953. Attendance was low, but it was the first sign that backgammon was on the road to recovery. There was a long wait before another tournament was held…
The First Obolensky Effect (1964)
Alex Obolensky, a prince from Russia, saw backgammon’s potential to become a popular game. He used his connections in the private club world to help organize a tournament in the Bahamas in March of 1964. Thirty-two players participated in the event, including the world’s best player Nick Sargent. Chicago’s Charles Wacker defeated New York’s Porter Ijams in the final game to win the event.
In May of 1964, Sports Illustrated published an extensive article about the tournament. Backgammon was about to explode into the national (and international) consciousness.
The Explosion (1965-1970)
The 1965 Bahamas tournament drew twice as many entrants (64 players) as the previous year. John Crawford won his first Masters tournament. Obolensky continued to put on tournaments throughout the decade. Hollywood celebrities began to play backgammon, including Lucille Ball, John Wayne, Polly Bergen, and Jim Brown. The best players in the world continued to compete in a series of highly publicized 64-man tournaments. An elite group of backgammon players (Tim Holland, Oswald Jacoby, John Crawford, Barclay & Walter Cooke) ruled this roiling world of chouette and tournament backgammon.
The Rise of the World Championship (1967)
The first World Championship of Backgammon was held in Las Vegas in 1967. Tim Holland won the first of his three world championship titles. He would go on to win again in 1968, after which the tournament was not held for two years. Holland won again in 1971, in what would be his final world championship. Holland is one of the game’s immortals, along with Nick Sargent and Charlie Wacker.
The Bible of Backgammon Appears (1970)
In 1970, “The Backgammon Book” by Oswald Jacoby and John Craw ford appeared. It was the first book to really elevate backgammon to new intellectual planes.
Gambling at the Playboy Mansion (1970-1976)
Hugh Hefner became enmeshed in backgammon and helped promote it through the pages of Playboy magazine. His mansion became the unofficial home to the game. Famous people from around the world played chouette at his home. Meanwhile, in New York City, a small group of mathematicians and gamers dined at the Olive Tree Cafe and at Singapore Sam’s and played backgammon for very high stakes. At the Mayfair Club and Racquet & Tennis Club in NYC, backgammon players continued to gather. A new generation of players, including Paul Magriel, Stan Tomchin, Chuck Papazian, and Mike Sen kiewicz, began to come of age. They were strong chess players who played a more aggressive, highly sophisticated style of backgammon called “pure style.”
The Backgammon Boom Spreads to Europe (1970-1976)
In the mid 1970’s, backgammon began to really take off in Europe. A group of powerful European players, including Joe Dwek, Phil Martyn, Lewis Deyong, and Kumars Motakhasses, began to make their presence felt. Around the world, clubs began to form, and a new generation of “touring players” began to rise. Major tournaments drew crowds of more than two hundred players, including celebrities, wealthy amateurs, and serious professionals. Articles in national magazines began to appear with some regularity, including a feature article that appeared in Harper’s in 1972 in which Jon Bradshaw wrote about the thriving backgammon scene in New York City. In addition, Bradshaw compiled a list of the ten best backgammon players in the world based on his informal interviews with players in the Mayfair Club, the Racquet & Tennis Club in New York City, and the Clermont Club in London. They were Tim Holland, Barclay & Walter Cooke, Paul Magriel, and Claude Beer, in that order. The first five were New Yorkers or British residents, with the exception of Nick Sargent, who was a Dallas native. Holland was number one on the list. In the same article, the author wrote that Oswald Jacoby of Dallas was number eleven.
The First Invitation Masters (1975)
In 1975, Obolensky put on the first of what were to be many Masters events at his club in Miami called Oby’s. There were twelve invited players, all top American players. The champion, Chuck Papazian, defeated two-time defending champion Arthur Dickman of Miami in the final match. Dickman was a very strong player, having placed second in the 1974 and 1975 World Championships. He has since faded away.
The Appearance of the Magriel Era (1976)
In 1976 the World Championship was held for the first time in the Bahamas at the Paradise Island Casino. Sponsorship was provided by the Philip Morris Company, and the first prize was a stunning trophy. Baron Vernon Ball was the first winner that year. Later that year, Paul Magriel brought out his book “Backgammon.” It was so influential that it became known as “the Bible of Backgammon.”
The Peak Years (1977-1981)
The backgammon world was a booming business. Single-day tournements at local clubs attracted large crowds. One night’s tournament at the Mayfair Club, for example, drew 150 competitive players. New stars were on the rise, including Roger Low, Jason Lester, Billy Horan, Kent Goulding, Mike Corbett, Malcolm Davis, Sandy Lubetkin, Nack Ballard, and Nick Maffeo. The New York Times began to publish a weekly backgammon column by Paul Magriel that continued for four years.
In 1978 the World Amateur Championship was held in Las Vegas with 652 players competing for a first prize of $380,000. Barclay Cooke published “Paradoxes and Probabilities,” a seminal work on the game of “pure style.” Paul Magriel won the World Championship that year in a best-of-13 final against Kal Robinson.
The next year the World Championship was held in Monte Carlo, Italy, with 309 players in the field. Luigi Villa eventually won the event, defeating Jeff Westheimer in the final. In a related match, Villa, the reigning World Champion, faced off against Hans Berliner’s Gammonoid, an intermediate level backgammon computer program, and won easily, 7-1.
The Slow Decline (1982-1987)
The popularity of backgammon was on the downside, though it remained a moderately popular game. Tournament turnouts were down to about 60 to 70 percent of peak levels. New stars were on the rise, however, including Joe Sylvester of Michigan.
In 1984 Kent Goulding put on the First U.S. Invitational Open Championship in DC with sixteen players. The winner was Mike Corbett, who beat Sandy Lubetkin in the final game.
Europe’s New Stars Emerge (1987-1988)
In the late 1980’s, backgammon began to gain ground in Germany, Denmark, and the other Scandinavian countries. Jerry Grandell of Sweden placed second in the 1987 World Championship in Monte Carlo. Philip Marmorstein of Germany won the 1988 World Championship.
The First World Cup (1988)
The first World Cup of Backgammon was held in Boston in 1988. Kent Goulding organized a long and grueling match between 46 players from around the world, beginning with first-round 25-point matches and ending with a 41-point final. Joe Sylvester of Michigan won the trophy, defeating hometown favorite Ray Glaeser of New Jersey 41-31 in the final.
Computers Begin to Play a Role in Backgammon (1990-1991)
Dr. Gerry Tesauro of IBM Research created TD-Gammon 1.0 in 1990. He used neural networks to teach a computer to play backgammon. In 1991 he challenged the world’s best human players to a match, which they won handily. TD-Gammon 2.0 came out the next year and was nearly at the level of the world’s best human players when it was released.
Inside Backgammon and the Rise of New European Players (1991-1994)
Kent Goulding and Bill Robertie launched “Inside Backgammon” in 1991. It was a magazine devoted to puzzles, analysis, annotated games, and theory. It was extremely popular and lasted for about eight years before being discontinued in 1999. A number of new European players, including Denmark’s Peter Jes Thomsen and Gus Jacobsen (better known as Hansen) and Germany’s Johannes Levermann, Dirk Schliemann, and Michael Meyburg, began to make their marks on the backgammon world.
The Era of the Software Revolution (1994-1997)
Jellyfish 1.0, the first commercial backgammon software to use neural networks, was released in 1994. It was a solid program that had a few flaws in the ace-point/back game database, so it played conservatively in those positions. Later versions of Jellyfish (2.0 and 3.0) were much stronger.
In 1997, Jellyfish 3.0 faced off against two human opponents (Mike Senkiewicz and Nack Ballard) in a 600-game match to test its skill level. The match ended in a draw, which meant that the program was at the level of the best human players. Jerry Grandell won the World Championship that year and was nicknamed “Jerryfish” because he meticulously studied Jellyfish’s play. Kit Woolsey published “New Ideas in Backgammon,” the first book to analyze backgammon using Jellyfish.
The Era of Snowie (1998-2003)
Snowie 1.0 was released in 1998. It was slightly stronger than Jellyfish and much more intuitive. The World Cup series ended that year as well, with Howard Ring of Chicago defeating Johannes Levermann in the final match.
In 2003, poker took over the world and backgammon players started to abandon the game at an alarming rate. Tournament attendance was down 30-40 percent from the 1990’s peak.
The Rise of the Modern Japanese Backgammon Superstars (2006-2016)
Strong Japanese players began to make their presence felt in the early 2000’s. Masayuki Mochizuki (Mochy), for example, won the 2009 World Championship in Monte Carlo. He was followed by Takumitsu Suzuki in 2011 and Akiko Yazawa in 2014.
Extreme Gammon entered the scene in 2011 and quickly gained a reputation as the best backgammon software available. Tournament attendance began to climb steadily from 2014-2015, after a lull in the early 2000’s. New books aimed at beginning players, including “Conquering Backgammon” and “Backgammon for Losers” and “Backgammon: From Beginner to Badass,” have made the game more accesable to a wider audience. In 2016, the New York Metropolitan Open recorded a modern-day record with more than 40 players in the beginner division.
The Explosion of the Backgammon Community (2017)
The number of online backgammon communities exploded in 2017. Tournaments, both online and in the real world, continued to draw larger crowds. Players could practice their skills from the comfort of their own homes.
Artificial Intelligence and Its Effects on the Game (2018)
The rise of computer software and artificial intelligence continued to shape the game. Both Extreme Gammon and GNU BG became indispensible training tools for any serious backgammon player. These programs were also very strong, regularly defeating top players in exhibition matches.
The Rise of the Online Backgammon Community (2019)
Online platforms made it possible to play against anyone, anywhere at any time. Players around the world gathered to form a strong online backgammon community. This allowed players to learn and improve their game in a virtual environment.
The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Lockdown of 2020-2021
The COVID-19 pandemic caused social distancing and the cancellation of most in-person tournaments. Players quickly adapted to the new circumstances. Many began to hold virtual tournaments, both in real life and online.
While restrictions began to ease up a bit in 2021, the game continued to thrive. Tournaments began to resume, and a new generation of players began to come of age.
The Return of Backgammon and the Continued Interest in the Game (2022-2023)
Backgammon has truly seen a rise in popularity in 2022 and 2023. Players of all ages have joined in the fun, whether it was online or at a live tournament. Virtual tournaments and world championships have drawn crowds from across the globe. People who enjoy watching the game have been able to view it on social media, where it has garnered a new following. Backgammon education and classes have also seen an increase in popularity.
The Long-Term Appeal of Backgammon
Looking back at the last century of backgammon history, it is fascinating to see how the game has evolved. Backgammon continues to draw in a following that spans the globe. As new players, new technology, and new ideas are made available to those who wish to play the game, the appeal of backgammon will continue to grow. Whether it is a casual or serious player, backgammon offers a unique blend of skill, luck and strategy to captivate anyone who rolls the dice.