The Oldest Game You Still Play
Of all the games humanity has invented, few can claim a lineage as ancient and unbroken as backgammon. While chess emerged roughly 1,500 years ago and Go perhaps 3,000, the race game tradition that culminated in modern backgammon stretches back at least 5,000 years — to the dawn of civilization itself, in the river valleys of Mesopotamia where writing, cities, and organized religion first appeared.
The journey from those earliest boards to the backgammon sets clicked open in Istanbul coffeehouses and Manhattan gaming clubs today passes through some of history’s most fascinating civilizations: Sumer, Egypt, Persia, Rome, Byzantium, and the medieval Islamic world. At each stop, the game was transformed — new rules grafted onto old boards, new meanings layered onto ancient mechanics — yet the essential concept remained: two players, racing pieces around a track, with dice determining movement and strategy determining victory.
This is the story of that 5,000-year race.
Mesopotamian Origins: The Royal Game of Ur
Discovery in the Death Pits
In 1922, British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley was excavating the Royal Cemetery at Ur, in present-day southern Iraq, when his team uncovered a series of magnificent game boards among the grave goods of Sumerian royalty. The most spectacular — now housed in the British Museum — dates to approximately 2600 BCE and features an elaborate design of shell, lapis lazuli, and red limestone inlaid in bitumen.
This was the Royal Game of Ur, and its discovery electrified the archaeological world. Here was concrete evidence that board gaming was not a later development of civilization but was present at its very foundations — buried alongside kings as an object worthy of the afterlife.
How It Was Played
For decades after its discovery, the rules of the Royal Game of Ur remained mysterious. The breakthrough came in 1980, when Irving Finkel of the British Museum deciphered a cuneiform tablet from 177 BCE — written over two millennia after the Ur boards were buried — that described the rules of a game played on an identical board.
The game used a board of 20 squares arranged in a distinctive pattern: two rectangular blocks of squares connected by a narrow bridge. Each player had seven pieces, and movement was determined by throwing tetrahedral dice (four-sided knucklebones). Players raced their pieces along a shared middle track, with special “rosette” squares granting extra turns and protection from capture.
The Royal Game of Ur was, in essence, a race game with capture mechanics — the fundamental blueprint that would persist through five millennia of evolution into modern backgammon.
Senet and the Egyptian Tradition
Parallel Development
While Mesopotamians played the Game of Ur, Egyptians were developing their own race game tradition. Senet, played on a board of 30 squares arranged in three rows of ten, appears in Egyptian art and burial goods from at least 3100 BCE, making it contemporary with the earliest Ur boards. The famous painting from the tomb of Queen Nefertari (13th century BCE) shows the queen playing Senet, underscoring the game’s elite status.
Senet’s relationship to the backgammon lineage is debated. Some scholars see it as a parallel but separate development; others argue it represents an early branch of the same race game family that would eventually produce backgammon. What is clear is that Senet, like the Game of Ur, established core principles — dice-driven movement, a track of sequential spaces, interaction between opposing pieces — that are foundational to backgammon.
From Game to Sacred Journey
Over its long Egyptian history, Senet underwent a remarkable transformation. What began as a secular game gradually acquired deep religious significance, becoming associated with the journey of the soul through the afterlife. By the New Kingdom period, the squares of the Senet board were identified with specific deities, challenges, and stages of the post-mortem journey. Playing Senet became, symbolically, a rehearsal for the most important race of all — the race through the underworld to eternal life.
Twenty Squares: The Bridge Game
The Royal Game of Ur did not remain confined to Mesopotamia. Archaeological evidence shows that the Game of Twenty Squares (a generic name for games played on Ur-type boards) spread throughout the ancient Near East, reaching Egypt, the Levant, Iran, India, and even Crete. It was one of the ancient world’s first truly international games.
As it traveled, the game evolved. Board shapes varied — some were elongated, others compact. The number of pieces and the specific movement rules likely differed from region to region. But the essential structure — a race along a track with dice and captures — remained remarkably stable across thousands of miles and hundreds of years.
By the first millennium BCE, the Game of Twenty Squares had largely given way to newer variants in most regions. But its genetic legacy lived on in the games that replaced it.
Tabula: Rome’s Obsession
From Ludus Duodecim Scriptorum to Tabula
The Romans inherited the race game tradition and made it their own. The earliest Roman variant was Ludus Duodecim Scriptorum (“Game of Twelve Lines”), played on a board of three rows of twelve points. Each player had fifteen pieces, and movement was determined by three cubic dice. The game was enormously popular — boards have been found scratched into the stone floors of the Forum, military barracks, and public baths across the Roman world.
Sometime around the 1st century CE, the three-row board gave way to a two-row design with 24 points — twelve per side. This game, known as Tabula (Latin for “board” or “table”), is the direct ancestor of modern backgammon. The shift from three rows to two was not merely aesthetic; it changed the game’s strategic character fundamentally, creating the back-and-forth racing dynamic that defines backgammon to this day.
Imperial Passion
Tabula became one of the most popular games in the Roman Empire, played by all social classes from slaves to emperors. The Emperor Claudius (r. 41-54 CE) was notoriously devoted to the game, reportedly having a board mounted on his chariot so he could play while traveling. He is said to have written a book about Tabula — now lost — which would have been the first gaming manual in Western history.
The Emperor Nero wagered enormous sums on Tabula games — reportedly up to 400,000 sesterces per point (equivalent to millions in modern currency). His gambling excesses became part of the broader narrative of imperial decadence, but they also testify to Tabula’s status as a game of sufficient depth and excitement to sustain high-stakes play.
“Tabula was to the Romans what backgammon is to the Turks — not merely a game but a social institution, a daily ritual, an arena for both friendship and rivalry.” — Austin, Greek and Roman Board Games
The Zeno Game
The most detailed ancient account of a specific Tabula game involves the Byzantine Emperor Zeno (r. 474-491 CE). A manuscript preserved in the Bibliotheca of the patriarch Photius describes a disastrous position Zeno reached after a particularly unlucky dice roll. Modern analysts have reconstructed the position and confirmed that it was indeed catastrophic — Zeno held a strong position that was completely destroyed by a single throw of 2, 5, and 6.
This episode is historically significant because the detailed description of Zeno’s position allows scholars to reconstruct the rules of Tabula with reasonable confidence. The game used three dice (modern backgammon uses two), each player had fifteen checkers, and the movement rules were broadly similar to modern backgammon, though the use of three dice and certain specific rules about entering and bearing off differed.
Nard: The Persian Transformation
The Sasanian Reinvention
While the Romans played Tabula, the Sasanian Persians (224-651 CE) developed their own version of the race game, known as Nard (also Nardshir or Nard-i-Shir). Persian literary tradition attributes the game’s invention to the sage Bozorgmehr, who reportedly created it as a response to the Indian game of chess — if chess represented warfare and human agency, Nard represented fate and divine will, as expressed through the dice.
This philosophical framing was characteristically Persian and profoundly influential. The 24 points of the Nard board were said to represent the 24 hours of the day. The twelve points on each side symbolized the twelve months. The thirty checkers (fifteen per player) represented the days of the month. The dice embodied fate, while the player’s choices represented free will — and the game itself was a meditation on the interplay between the two.
The Crucial Innovation: Two Dice
Nard introduced what would become the standard configuration for modern backgammon: two dice rather than three. This seemingly small change had enormous strategic implications. With three dice, the total range of movement per turn is larger and more variable, making the game more chaotic. Two dice create a tighter, more controllable probability space, increasing the ratio of skill to luck and rewarding positional play.
Nard also established rules about doubles — when both dice show the same number, the player uses that number four times rather than twice. This rule, retained in modern backgammon, creates the possibility of powerful “big rolls” that can transform a game’s trajectory in a single turn.
Spread Through the Islamic World
After the Arab conquest of Persia in the 7th century, Nard spread throughout the Islamic world with remarkable speed. The game became a fixture of coffeehouses from Cairo to Istanbul to Delhi. Islamic scholars debated its theological implications — was the reliance on dice a form of forbidden gambling, or could the game be played innocently? Most authorities concluded that playing for money was haram (forbidden) but that the game itself was permissible.
The great Islamic polymath al-Biruni (973-1048) described Nard in detail, and references appear throughout medieval Arabic and Persian literature. The game’s association with fate and divine will gave it a philosophical respectability that pure gambling games lacked, and it was enjoyed by sultans and scholars alongside merchants and soldiers.
Medieval Europe: Tables and Its Variants
The Return to Europe
The race game re-entered Europe through two channels: the Byzantine continuation of Roman Tabula, and the Islamic transmission of Nard via Moorish Spain and the Crusader states. By the 11th and 12th centuries, games known collectively as “Tables” were widespread throughout Europe.
The generic name “Tables” encompassed a large family of games played on the same 24-point board. Medieval European manuscripts describe over two dozen variants, including:
- Todas Tablas: The closest to modern backgammon, described in Alfonso X’s Libro de los Juegos (1283)
- Tric-Trac: A French variant focused on point-scoring rather than bearing off
- Irish: An English variant that is essentially modern backgammon minus the doubling cube
- Emperador: A Spanish variant using three dice, preserving the Roman tradition
Alfonso X and the Libro de los Juegos
The single most important medieval source for board game history is the Libro de los Juegos (Book of Games), commissioned by King Alfonso X of Castile in 1283. This lavishly illustrated manuscript dedicates substantial space to Tables games, describing rules, strategies, and the cultural context of play. It is through Alfonso’s book that we can trace the clear line from Nard through the various Tables variants to what would eventually become backgammon.
Gambling and Prohibition
Tables games were intimately associated with gambling throughout the medieval period, and this association brought periodic attempts at prohibition. Louis IX of France banned the game for his subjects in 1254. Various English statutes restricted Tables play among soldiers and students. The Church periodically condemned the game — not on theological grounds related to the dice (as in Islam) but simply because of the gambling, drinking, and disorder that accompanied play.
These prohibitions were largely ineffective. Tables was too deeply embedded in European social life to be stamped out by decree, and it continued to thrive in taverns, courts, and private homes throughout the medieval and early modern periods.
The Birth of Backgammon
The Name and the Rules
The word “backgammon” first appears in English in the mid-17th century. Its etymology is debated — possibilities include Middle English baec gamen (“back game”), Welsh bach cammon (“small battle”), or a reference to the “back” movement of re-entering hit checkers. Whatever its origin, the name gradually displaced “Tables” and “Irish” as the standard English term for the game.
The rules of backgammon as we know them crystallized during the 17th century, synthesizing elements from various Tables traditions. The key features — two dice, fifteen checkers per player, the 24-point board, the bar for hit checkers, and bearing off — were all inherited from earlier variants. What was new was the specific combination and the standardization of rules that had previously varied from region to region.
Edmond Hoyle and Standardization
The legendary English games authority Edmond Hoyle published his treatise on backgammon in 1743, providing the first comprehensive English-language guide to the game’s rules and strategy. Hoyle’s work helped standardize play across Britain and its colonies, and his name became synonymous with authoritative game rules — “according to Hoyle” remains a common English idiom to this day.
The Doubling Cube: A Revolution
New York, 1920s
For most of its 5,000-year history, the race game evolved slowly, with changes accumulating over centuries. Then, in the 1920s, an innovation emerged from the gaming clubs of New York City that would transform backgammon more dramatically than any change since the shift from three dice to two.
The doubling cube is a die marked with the numbers 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64. At any point during a game, a player may offer to double the stakes. The opponent must either accept the double (and take possession of the cube at the new value) or decline and forfeit the game at the current stakes. Subsequent redoubles follow the same logic, with the cube potentially escalating to 64 times the original stake.
The doubling cube is not merely a gambling device — it is a strategic instrument of the first order. Correct cube decisions require sophisticated evaluation of position, pip count, race equity, and match score. The mathematics of cube strategy became a field unto itself, attracting analysts who developed formal models for optimal doubling and take/drop decisions.
The Skill Factor
The doubling cube dramatically increased the skill component of backgammon. In a single game without the cube, luck plays a substantial role — a few fortunate rolls can overcome a significant positional disadvantage. But in a match or money session with the cube, the cumulative effect of correct versus incorrect cube decisions overwhelms the variance of individual dice rolls. A player who consistently makes better cube decisions will win over the long run, even against opponents with superior checker play.
This insight — that the cube amplifies skill — was not immediately appreciated. But as competition intensified through the mid-20th century, the best players recognized that mastering the cube was at least as important as mastering checker play.
The Modern Era
The 1970s Boom
Backgammon experienced a massive surge in popularity during the 1970s, driven by high-profile tournaments, celebrity endorsements, and the jet-set glamour associated with the game. The first major tournament, organized by Prince Alexis Obolensky, was held in the Bahamas in 1964. By the mid-1970s, backgammon tournaments were drawing hundreds of competitors and significant prize pools.
The game became associated with the international leisure class — played in Monte Carlo casinos, London clubs, and Manhattan penthouse parties. Hugh Hefner, Lucille Ball, and other celebrities were known devotees. This glamorous image, combined with the genuine strategic depth revealed by the doubling cube, created a perfect storm of popularity.
The Computer Revolution
The advent of powerful backgammon-playing software in the 1990s and 2000s transformed the game as profoundly as the doubling cube had. Programs like TD-Gammon (developed by Gerald Tesauro at IBM using neural networks in 1992), Jellyfish, Snowie, and later GNU Backgammon and eXtreme Gammon achieved superhuman playing strength, allowing precise analysis of any position.
These programs revealed that many moves and cube decisions considered correct by top human players were in fact errors. The software era humbled the backgammon community and simultaneously elevated the general standard of play. Modern top players routinely consult software for analysis, and the gap between the best human play and theoretically optimal play has narrowed dramatically.
Online Play and Global Community
The internet brought backgammon to a global audience. Online platforms allow players from Turkey, Greece, the United States, Japan, and dozens of other countries to compete in real time. The game’s traditional strongholds — the Middle East, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Anglophone world — have been joined by growing communities in Asia and Latin America.
Backgammon remains particularly central to social life in Turkey, Greece, and Iran. In Turkish coffeehouses (kahvehane), the clatter of dice on wooden boards is as characteristic as the aroma of strong coffee. The game there is called tavla — a word derived, through Arabic, from the same Latin tabula that named the Roman ancestor.
Strategy Across the Millennia
What strategic principles connect the Royal Game of Ur to modern backgammon? More than might be expected. The fundamental tension in all race games is between speed and safety — advancing quickly toward the goal versus protecting pieces from capture. This tension, present in the earliest Sumerian boards, remains the core strategic dilemma of backgammon 5,000 years later.
Modern backgammon strategy recognizes several key concepts that echo through the game’s history:
- The race: When contact between opposing forces is minimal, the game reduces to a pure race — advance as quickly as possible. This was likely the dominant strategy in the earliest, simplest race games.
- The block: Building consecutive occupied points to obstruct the opponent’s movement. The “prime” — six consecutive points forming an impassable wall — is backgammon’s most powerful positional weapon.
- The attack: Hitting vulnerable opponent pieces to send them backward, gaining a tempo advantage. This aggressive approach rewards the risk-taking that makes backgammon dramatic.
- The anchor: Maintaining a defensive presence in the opponent’s home board, providing insurance against an attack and a landing spot for re-entry from the bar.
A Game That Endures
The story of Nard and its descendants, from the Royal Game of Ur to the sleek online platforms of today, is a story of remarkable continuity through constant change. Each civilization that adopted the race game reshaped it in its own image — the Sumerians buried it with kings, the Persians infused it with cosmological meaning, the Romans played it obsessively in their baths and forums, and modern Americans added the doubling cube to sharpen its competitive edge.
Yet through all these transformations, the essential experience remains: two players, facing each other across a board, making the best of what the dice provide. In that interplay of fortune and decision-making, something universal persists — a 5,000-year conversation between chance and choice that shows no signs of ending.
The next time you roll the dice and move your checkers, remember that you are participating in one of humanity’s oldest continuous cultural traditions. The race game has outlasted empires, survived prohibitions, adapted to new technologies, and crossed every border. It is, in the most literal sense, a game for the ages.
