Backgammon has been played for about 5,000 years. Its ancestors include Senet, The Royal Game of Ur, and the Roman games Ludus Duodecim Scriptorum and Tabula.
Photo used with permission of The Elliott Avedon Museum & Archive of Games, University of Waterloo.The rules of modern Backgammon took shape in the 1600s. By the 1740s, Edmond Hoyle codified the rules. Backgammon is for two players, and can be played by children ages eight and up.
Backgammon relies on dice rolling, so if your opponent rolls sixes while you roll ones, you're probably going to lose no matter what you do. But because so many dice are rolled during a game of Backgammon, the luck usually evens out, and whoever plays the better strategy is likely to win. Contributing writer Seth Brown examines the five basic Backgammon strategies.
For casual backgammon players, it's easy to forget how to set up the board. Follow these instructions and you'll have it mastered in no time.
Many casual backgammon players have never used a doubling cube, but it brings a significant amount of new strategy into the game. Read on to see how you can use it, too.
