Backgammon History

The game of Backgammon is a game that has managed to transcend time. There are artefacts relating to the game of Backgammon that date back some 5000 years. Incredibly, significant pieces of memorabilia have been found among the rubble of ancient Egypt that gives credence to the belief that the game of Backgammon has been derived from a game that was played in that era. A pair of dice and a set of checkers lead many historians to believe that these artefacts prove the Egyptian game of Senet was the ancestor of the modern game of Backgammon. Now, Backgammon history gives us no indication that the legendary Egyptian, King Tut, was an avid player of the game of Senat, but we do know that the King knew how to “walk like an Egyptian.”


Backgammon History - A Mixed Breed
Some believe Backgammon history dates back to ancient city of Mesopotamia. There are indications that the game of what we know today as Backgammon was played in the country of Iran as well some 2000 years after it was thought to have been played in Mesopotamia. In both discoveries, dice and checker figurines were found, which brings us up to the Romans’ chapter of Backgammon history.

In ancient Rome, there was a game that utilised a board similar to a checkers board with three rows on it. Backgammon history recounts that the game employed the movements associated with today’s game of Backgammon. Writings preserved from those days indicate that, during the reign of the emperor Zeno in the 5th Century A.D., this game had the same object as Backgammon, and that the victor of the game was the individual who removed all the opponent’s pieces from the board. The writings further indicate that three dice were used and that points were awarded for taking an opponent’s checker piece.

Sooner or later France had to get into the act of Backgammon history. The game was so popular in the middle of the 13th Century that King Louis IX decreed that it was against the law to play the game of Backgammon. The game then swept through Europe in the latter part of the 13th Century, making stops in Germany, and Iceland, to name a few.

The Backgammon history books award the famed Englishman Edmund Hoyle the distinguished honour of modernising the game. In 1743, Hoyle wrote A Short Treatise on the Game of Backgammon which enumerated game rules and strategies.

There is no further indication in Backgammon history of any major changes from what Hoyle had set in stone until 1926, when gamblers in New York City altered the face of the game by introducing the “doubling cube” concept.” This concept doubled the stakes of the game, and added to its intrigue and excitement. Today, Backgammon is a staple of the online casino parlours on the Internet, and the game of Backgammon is developing a whole new generation of followers.