Backgammon
Backgammon: 5000 years and still going strong
If you had to judge the worthiness of a game based on its ability to stay popular through time then backgammon is certainly one of humanities most prized games. The origins of backgammon are believed to be rooted in ancient Mesopotamia which today is in the area of Syrian, Iraq and Iran dating back some 5000 years or so. The game was very popular within the Persian empire and it soon got exported to other parts of Asia and continued to spread from there.
Backgammon is loved in the Mediterranean and goes by several different names such as shesh besh, tawula, tavla, tavli and more. It was widely promoted during the expansion of the Roman Empire and gained a lot of popularity in Greece , Turkey , Israel and the Middle East . Ancient backgammon sets have been unearthed and we now realize that the game has more or less remained the same for thousands of years. The name of the game and terminology may have changed, the main concept of rolling dice and moving checkers across the point of a backgammon board has remained.
The only major addition to the game in the last 100 years was the addition of the doubling cube which is used in competitive backgammon in order to raise the stakes of the game and also to pressure the opponent into resigning early. Today backgammon is still widely enjoyed around the world and many people play for fun as well as competitively. The World Backgammon Championship is the most well-known and esteemed competitive backgammon tournament around and it's been going strong since the mid 1960's.
Many books have been written about backgammon including all time best sellers such as "Backgammon" which includes detailed information about how to play the game. Other more advanced books include a look at complex backgammon strategies such as understanding game and cube equity, dice probability laws, closely analyzing the best opening and mid-game moves and of course defensive and offensive play like anchoring, priming and blocking.
Backgammon has also found a new home on the internet with several well-established free backgammon applications such as FIBS - the First Internet Backgammon Server which allows people to connect to a large network of thousands of players and commercial backgammon software providers like BackgammonMasters who offer the players both free and real money stakes mode.
Improvements are always being made in order to make virtual backgammon more challenging. Snowie is a software simulator that is currently in its 4 generation. Using sophisticated software it is able to analyze moves and plays in real-time in order to make the best possible moves. Snowie and other advanced backgammon software simulators have managed to stump even the best human players. Though the game seems to gaining more and more popularity in the computer environment at its core it's sill the same great game that has been enjoyed by humanity for thousands of years.
