Backgammon: Dice, Points, and Checkers

Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. Pieces move along 24 points according to two dice.

Each player commands 15 pieces traditionally known as men. In the US, these are increasingly called checkers.

Nard emerged between the 3rd and 6th century AD. It is a Persian tables game.

The Royal Game of Ur used tetrahedral dice.

The name Tavli is still used in Greece for various tables games. These are frequently played in town plateias and cafes.

A doubling cube was introduced in the 1920s. It arrived in New York City gaming clubs.

Backgammon entered the computer era in the 1990s when software was developed to play and analyze games online.

Edmond Hoyle published A Short Treatise on the Game of Back-Gammon in 1753. The book described rules and strategy.