The origins of backgammon...
Backgammon is one of the oldest table games as it has been dated to 5000 BC in Iran. Not a backgammon as we know today, but we find the concept of the board, pawns and dice.
During the Roman Empire, table games experiences real success and several emperors become fond of games similar to backgammon.
This phenomenon explains that the game's expansion to new territories. In addition, commercial exchanges and the various invasions continue to popularize it and backgammon meets its first success in Spain and England from the 16th century.
It will take the name of backgammon after Napoleon and modifications will be made to the rules of the game in order to create "modern backgammon" at the beginning of the 20th century.
The game is very popular in Greece, Cyprus, Turkey and the south of France. Nevertheless, it continues to develop and remains very attractive today. Easily accessible, it is played by two and a game can be quite fast.
This game combines dice-rolling luck and skill in strategy. We are talking about a reasoned game of chance.
The material :
A game board made up of 2 compartments of 12 arrows
2 pairs of classic 6-sided dice
1 doubling cube dice showing 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64
The game is simple: 2 players compete to be the first to remove all their pawns from the board.
Depending on the results obtained by the dice, the players will have to move their pawns on the 24 squares of the board in order to bring them to their internal board.
The main rule is that it is impossible to place your pawn on a square already occupied by at least 2 opponent's pawns.
The basics :
At the beginning of the game, the pawns are distributed on the board in an imposed and universal way. They circulate in a determined direction and according to the result of the roll of 2 dice. On their way to the exit, they can be blocked or "beaten" by those of the opponent.
A game can bring 1, 2 or 3 points to the winner depending on the final position of the opponent's pawns. The possibility for players to ask, or refuse, during a game to double and even redouble the base points granted to the winner gives a strategic and even psychological dimension to the game.
The starting position of the pawns :
The pawns are moved in the direction of the arrows.
Each player arranges the pawns on the arrows as follows:
The game's rules
1. Decide who will go first by taking turns rolling a dice. The player with the highest score starts. He will move his pawns according to the number of points indicated by the dice.
Then the dice are rolled in pairs, alternately by each player.
2. Each player takes turns rolling the dice and moving their pawns on the arrows. A pawn can only be moved on a free arrow, that is to say which is not occupied by at least 2 opponent's pawns.
3. A player may move his pawns individually. In the event of a double dice, the player plays four times the number indicated by the dice. If you arrive at an arrow occupied by a single opposing pawn, it is removed and placed on the Bar (central separation of the game). At the next move, the opponent will have to bring this pawn into your internal game. If the player cannot bring the pawn into the interior game because the arrows are occupied by at least 2 opposing pawns, he loses his turn. He will not be able to move any other pawn until the one taken out is put back into play.
4. As soon as a player has returned his fifteen pawns to his inner game, he can begin to take his pawns out. The player takes out a pawn using the number indicated by one of the dice which corresponds to the arrow on which he is standing, taking it out of the game (a 1 takes out a pawn on arrow 1, a 2 on arrow 2 etc…. ). It is nevertheless possible to take out a pawn lower than the value of the die (a 6 can take out a pawn on arrow 5 if there is no pawn on arrow 6). Finally, it is possible to advance his pawn by the value indicated (a 2 can advance a pawn from arrow 5 to arrow 3).
5. The first player to take out all of their pawns wins the game.