History of the doubling cube

Shaker · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 20

I am somewhat of a history buff and I noticed that the doubling cube isn’t used in any older variations of backgammon or backgammon games around the world. When and how was the doubling cube introduced?

Maverick · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 15

As far as we know, the doubling cube was introduced to the game of backgammon in the 1920’s in New York. The name of the person who introduced it is unknown, just that he was a gambler who wanted to raise the stakes and make the game of backgammon a bit more interesting.

Adding the doubling cube also made the game more marketable as it opened it up to new audiences. Up until the cube was introduced the game was mostly reserved for the upper class but the excitement the doubling cube provided caused people from all classes to be interested in the game.

joliver · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 25

I too had always thought that the doubling cube wasn’t even invented until the 1920s, but recently I have heard that there might have been a game as early as the 1600s that used the doubling cube. Although not used in the game of backgammon exactly, it seems that doubling cubes had been used in backgammon-like games as well as card games in seventeenth century Ireland! So it seems that, while the doubling cube may have only been introduced to backgammon as we know it in the last century, people have been using it to play similar games for thousands of years!