The game of tables
Backgammon is the youngest member of a very old family. Its line runs back through Roman tabula to the three-row XII Scripta boards carved into Roman forums.
From twelve lines to two rows
The Roman game XII Scripta was played on three rows of twelve. By late antiquity it had lost a row and become tabula, "tables", played on two rows of twelve with fifteen pieces a side and three dice. A Greek poem by Agathias records a disastrous throw by the emperor Zeno in a game of tabula around AD 480. It sets out the position so exactly that people have rebuilt it on a modern board.
Tables games spread across Europe and the Middle East in the Middle Ages, with many local rules. The English name "backgammon" appears in the 1600s. Close relatives are still everyday games: tavla in Turkey, tavli in Greece, and nard in Iran and the Caucasus.
The modern rules
The rules here are the standard ones settled in the 1700s and 1800s. Each side has fifteen checkers and two dice, and the sides move in opposite directions. Doubles are played four times. A lone checker can be hit and must come back in from the bar before its owner moves anything else. You bear off once all fifteen are in your home board. The doubling cube, added in the 1920s, raises the stakes in money and tournament play. It's left out here to keep the game calm.
- If you can use both dice, you must. If you can use only one, and either would do, you must use the larger.
- When bearing off, a die higher than your farthest checker can bear that checker off.
- You win a gammon if your opponent hasn't borne off any checkers when you finish. You win a backgammon if they also still have a checker on the bar or in your home board.
Sources
- Backgammon Galaxy / bkgm.com: Rules of Backgammon
- Wikipedia: Backgammon and Tabula
- Austin, R. G. (1934). "Zeno's Game of τάβλη." Journal of Hellenic Studies 54: 202–205.