Backgammon is oldest recorded east game, that was popular during few thousand years almost all over the world. People played this board game already more then 5000 years, and this fact have historical evidences.
The oldest backgammon board was found in Asia and dated 5000BC. The roots of backgammon run deep. One of the most ancient ancestry is claimed by a game called "Senet" which came out of Egypt (at least 3000 BC). This game was played on a board with 3x10, 3x12, and 3x6 squares. No one is quite certain now of the rules, but it has been conjectured that it was gambling game of movement and displacement of opponent pieces (usually made of stone) moving in opposite directions. The movement was thought to be controlled by the roll of dice made of bones or ceramic. In archeological discoveries dice have frequently been found with the distinctive playing boards.
The Roman game, Ludus Duodecim Scriptorum, most likely derived from Senat. The tortuous Latin means "Game of Twelve Lines on a Board". It had three rows of twelve "points" and was played with three six-sided dice. In the 500`s AD one of the rows were dropped. The game, later in the first mellinium, came to be called "tabula". It was called tabula, which means `table` or `board`, since it was played on a special board. The Emperor Claudius was very fond of the game. He had a game board attached to his chariot.
The game of Tabula was similar to modern-day Backgammon in that the same board was used with fifteen pieces alloted to each player with the object of the game being to be the first to bear off all fifteen pieces. It differed in that the game began with no pieces on the board so that these first had to be entered by the roll of the dice. Likewise, three dice were used instead of two. Finally, both players entered the board from the same table and moved around the board in the same counterclockwise direction.
The game was brought to England by invasion during the first century AD. The game came to be called "Tables" and the rules became more recognizable to moderns. It survived the middle ages as a gambling game of the upper classes. It was banned for a time in England because of the gambling nature of the game. It was a game frequently played in taverns. It was first referred to as "Backgammon" in 1645. It is thought that the name derived from the Middle English word "gam" meaning "game" and "back". Together it probably meant, "the game where you can go back" refering to a blot that has been sent back to the bar.
In 1743 Edmund Hoyle came out with the first official rules of backgammon. The doubling cube was believed to be introduced in New York in the 1920`s by some unknown. The idea was likely to accelerate the stakes of the gambling game much more quickly. Yet it also had the effect of favoring more skilled players who were more capable of judging the chances of certain positions.
Today there are backgammon tournaments in the United States and Europe. The first world championships were held in Bermuda in the 1960s. This tournament was organized and promoted by Prince Alexis Obelensky (Oby). Bermuda remains a popular center of Backgammon culture. Backgammon is now one of the most popular of the classic games.
Nowaday Backgammon is still one of most popular games in the world, with hundreds of clubs online and even more in the real world, not to mention the casual or family games that go on every day. A game of intense skill with a little luck thrown in, Backgammon will probably exist as long as the human race plays games.
