Author Kristy McCaffrey's Blog ~ Pathways: The Origins of Backgammon

Wednesday, December 15, 2021

The Origins of Backgammon

By Kristy McCaffrey

Backgammon is one of the oldest known board games and can be traced back 5000 years to archaeological discoveries in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq). The Royal Game of Ur from 2600 BC may be an ancestor of today’s version of backgammon. Today the game is still popular in Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and throughout the Arab world.

Backgammon involves a combination of strategy and luck (from rolling dice) and is played by two people. Playing pieces are usually called checkers, but also draughts, stones, men, counters, pawns, discs, pips, chips, or nips. The objective for each player is to remove, or bear off, all of their checkers from the board before their opponent can do the same.

Each side of the board has a track of 12 long triangles, called points. Play commences in a horseshoe path with players moving checkers to their home board. Once all checkers are collected, then they can be removed depending on the roll of the dice.

There are many variants to the game as well as the optional use of a doubling cube.

The United States Backgammon Federation (USBGF) was organized in 2009 to help popularize the game in the U.S.

In my book ANCIENT WINDS, Brynn and Tristan play a game of backgammon in the Bolivian jungle.

Excerpt

Brynn couldn’t sleep and found Tristan sitting by a small fire near the main building. With elbows on knees, he was hunched forward, his gaze intent on the flames as shadows ebbed and flowed across the angles of his face. He sported a few days’ growth of whiskers and his dark hair was curling along the collar of his shirt. The wilderness was slowly consuming them, making them wild in the process, or maybe it was simply the jungle stripping away societal barriers and laying them bare. Brynn suspected, however, that Magee had never paid much attention to such niceties.

“Communing with aliens?” she asked, keeping her voice low so as not to disturb the others who might be nearby. Tristan had been right—privacy was in short supply.

The glint in Tristan’s gaze conveyed annoyed amusement. And maybe something else. The tug in her belly was immediate, and she all but lifted her nose to catch his scent. For a moment she let herself revel in everything male that was Magee: muscle, strength, and possibly the biggest aphrodisiac for her—irreverence.

He motioned for her to sit as he said, “Well, if you consider talking to Dimar interacting with something not of this world, then the answer is yes.”

She took a seat, leaving the one between them empty. Wouldn’t want him to get the wrong idea.

“Sometimes I have trouble sleeping in the jungle,” he said.

“Is that a sleeping aid?” she asked as he took a sip from his canteen.

He replaced the lid. “Nah. Just water. Can you play backgammon, Galloway?”

“Yes. I used to play with my grandfather.”

“I’ll be right back.”

He disappeared, and then returned with a mini version of the game. He unfolded the board and proceeded to set it up on the empty chair between them.

“Why backgammon?” she asked, helping him organize the pieces in the glow of the firelight.

“It was my dad’s favorite. Did you know it’s one of the oldest known board games?”

“I do. They’ve found evidence of it in Mesopotamia. Maybe it was a gift from their alien benefactors.”

“The dice were made from human bones, so no alien intervention likely.”