Backgammon is an ancient board game that is prevalent from the discovery of Mesopotamia. The sport is played between two players. The playing board consist of twenty-four narrow triangles regarded as the Points. The points are generally in alternate colours and are grouped into four different quadrants, each consist of six triangles.
The main objective is to move the checkers in the player's home board and then put them off the board (bear-off). The player who can bear the checkers off the board first eventually wins the game. The checkers can be moved only in the open points which aren't occupied by two or more checkers from the opponent.
The board games were first originated in Iran's Shahr-e Sukhteh, known as The Burnt City. The earlier variation was played with two dices and 60 checkers on the board. Later, the sport was introduced in the Roman and Byzantine Empire, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, East Asia, Western Europe and Great Britain.
In the 1920s, the sport was introduced in the United States among the gaming clubs members in the Lower East Side. By the mid-1960s the popularity of the sport widely increased due to the efforts of Prince Alexis Obolensky. He co-founded of the International Backgammon Association which published the official set of rules for the game.
He also established the World Backgammon Club in Manhattan in 1963 for the development of the game. In 1967, the Backgammon clubs organised the World Championship in Las Vegas.
In 2009, the United States Backgammon Federation (USBGF) was organised to promote the games. The USBGF also published the Standards of Ethical Practice for the game.
Acey Deucey is the most popular version of
regular backgammon. The variant has aced itself in terms of the speed. Here, the participants roll a dice where the 1 and 2 has a special significance and are prioritised. Both the 1 and 2 are together known as Acey-Deucey. Any competitor with consecutive 1 or 2 rolls or double rolls is given an extra turn to move the checkers with their choice.,
In this variant, the players begin the matches with three checkers on the board at
22, 23, and 24th points. It is considered as the
faster version of backgammon.,
It is a variant of backgammon which was invented by
Nick Ballard. The players begin the matches with one less checker placed in the sixth and midpoint, and two checkers placed on the 23rd point. ,
The
traditional variant of regular backgammon originated from Persia, which follows similar rules except for a single safe piece. All the 15 pieces in the match begin from the 24th wedge. ,
The sport originated in Russia and became popular in other regions of the world. In this variant, the players are required to move their checkers in the same direction. When the players roll a double, they play four moves that correspond to their dice values.
The quadrants are usually regarded as players' home board and outer board. Both the home and outer boards are separated via a ridge passing through the centre known as the Bar or rail.
The points are marked in the player's home board. The twenty-fourth point for the first player is the first point for the opponent player. Each player has a total of fifteen checkers with a specific colour.
Initially, two checkers are placed in each player's twenty-fourth point followed by five checkers placed on thirteenth-point, three on eighth and five on the sixth point. Each player has two dices with a dice cup used for shaking. The doubling cube with 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 numbers on its faces is used to keep track of the current stack.
