Backgammon

“ In other respects the game is similar to ordinary backgammon. The chief object in the game is for the player who has his men in advance to secure as many successive points as possible, so that his adversary may be unable to pass or hit the forward men. ”

“ The people, being less intellectual than the old Mexicans, have dropped the skillful part of the game and are content with the mere dicing. Nor, by the way, is this the only place where backgammon has so come down, for in Egypt they will lay aside the board and throw the táb-sticks for fun, those who throw four and six being proclaimed Sultan and Vizier, while the luckless thrower of two gets for his reward two cuts with the palm-stick on the soles of his feet. ”

“ But of late years this pastime is become unfashionable, and of course it is not often practised. The tables, indeed, are frequently enough to be met with in the country mansions; but upon examination you will generally find the men deficient, the dice lost, or some other cause to render them useless. Backgammon is certainly a diversion by no means fitted for company, which cards are made to accommodate in a more extensive manner ”

“ Whoever first takes off all his men wins the game:—a single game (a "hit") if his adversary has begun bearing; a double game (a "gammon") if the adversary has not borne a man; and a triple game (a "backgammon") if, at the time the winner bears his last man, his adversary, not having borne a man, has one in the winner's inner table, or has a man up. When a series of games is played, the winner of a hit has the first throw in the succeeding game; but if a gammon is won, the players each throw a single die to determine the first move of the next game. ”

“ The noise of backgammon is intolerable to persons who do not know the game, which is really one of the most difficult that was ever invented. Not to annoy his godchild, the extreme delicacy of whose organs and nerves could not bear, he thought, without injury the noise and the exclamations she did not know the meaning of, the abbe, old Jordy while living, and the doctor always waited till their child was in bed before they began their favorite game. ”

“ Perhaps the most familiar game of this kind is backgammon, which was certainly known to the Greeks and Romans, and possibly to the Egyptians and Phœnicians. In this game and kindred ones the object is to throw away men whose value is determined chiefly by chance, while the advance to advantageous points is a matter of calculation, thus affording a combination of direct and indirect fighting. ”

“ Besides the high count, they have the privilege of a second throw. This, if lot backgammon came first, and was succeeded by dice backgammon, would naturally pass into our rule of giving doubles another throw. The throw of one white, which is called "child," or táb, i. e., "game," has a special power, for only by it may a "dog," that is, a stone or draught, be moved out of its original place in the outer row, and set at liberty to circulate along the lines of squares or "houses," taking an enemy's dog if found alone in its house. ”

“ An American gentleman, who was so passionately fond of backgammon, that, even to be a spectator of [59] it much interested him, happened to be surveying a game in which one of the players shewed an evident inferiority to the other. As the game proceeded, he was wrought up to a pitch of perfect fury at the bad play of this individual, who on the other hand, maintained, under all his reverses, a coolness perfectly admirable. “Can you bear that?” cried the American at every hit made by the good player. ”

“ If he is correct, the person last striking takes his place. Of course, a large part of the sport is to deliver very shrewd blows. The fact that such a game can be in vogue shows again that even the high and mighty are often like hot-blooded children abounding in animal spirits.
These games Conon will not press upon his guests. He will urge on them backgammon, checkers, chess or, if they seem young and secular, perhaps dice. Backgammon is called "tables." It is a combination of dice playing plus the motion of pieces on a board which goes back to Roman times. ”

“ Indeed, there is more than one instance in history of an opponent being brained with a chess-board, of knives being drawn and men slain in the heat of the game! Backgammon, under the name of "Tables," was played with double boards and dice, even as it is to-day, as also was the game of draughts, which came over from France under the name of "Dames." There was no card playing as yet, for cards were not introduced into England till quite the end of the fourteenth century, and they did not become universally popular till later, when chess went out of fashion. ”

“ BY backgammon we usually mean one particular game played with dice and thirty draughts, on a board with twelve points on each side. But this is only one of a family of games, whose general definition is that they consist in moving pieces on a diagram, not at the player's free choice, as in draught-playing, but conformably to the throws of lots or dice. It can hardly be doubted that the set of games thus combining chance and skill are all, whether ancient or modern, the descendants of one original game. ”

“ Or he watched a party of several, with the pictured sheet of Japanese backgammon before them, write their names on slips of paper or wood, and throw in turn a die. The slips are placed on the pictures whose numbers correspond with the throw. At the next round, if the number thrown by the particular player is written on the picture, he finds directions as to which picture to move his slip backward or forward to. He may, however, find his throw a blank and have to remain at his place. The winning consists in reaching a certain picture. ”

“ But how frail are all human resolutions—overturned by the merest trifle! In this case, the game of backgammon was the unconscious cause of Nathalie’s becoming Mme. d’Apremont. The captain was an excellent hand at backgammon. When the uncle heard this, he proposed a game; and the captain, who understood that it was important to gain the uncle’s favor, readily acceded.
This did not please Nathalie. She preferred that he should be occupied with herself. When all the company were gone, she turned to her uncle, saying: “You were right, uncle, after all. I do not admire the captain’s manners ”

“ As for himself, he said that he lived by playing backgammon, though he was not at all lucky at it, as talent went for more than luck at that game. I can understand how, if fortune is neutral, the best player will win, but I do not see how the contrary can take place. ”

“ The player who did not begin the game must now move a man; his object is to inclose one of his adversary's between two of his own, in which case he removes it, and is entitled to continue moving till he can no longer take. It is a game of some skill, and perpetual practice enables the Somal to play it as the Persians do backgammon, with great art and little reflection. ”

“ The earlier acts declared unlawful the following games of skill: football, quoits, putting the stone, kails, tennis, bowls, clash or kails, or cloyshcayls, logating, half bowl, slide-thrift or shove-groat and backgammon. Backgammon and other games in 1739 played with backgammon tables were treated as lawful in that year. Horse-racing, long under restriction, being mentioned in the act of 1665 and many 18th-century acts, was fully legalized in 1840 (3 & 4 Vict. c. 35) . The act of 1541, so far as it declared any game of mere skill unlawful, was repealed by the Gaming Act 1845. ”

“ I was not in humour to spend much time with them, but walked a little before Sir J. Minnes’s door and then took leave, and I by water to Woolwich, where with my wife to a game at tables,
[The old name for backgammon, used by Shakespeare and others. The following lines are from an epitaph entirely made up of puns on backgammon “Man’s life’s a game at tables, and he may Mend his bad fortune by his wiser play.” Wit’s Recre., i. 250, reprint, 1817.] ”

“ Who, in the middle ages, could have guessed what would be its next outcome—that magic sunk into sport should rise again as science, and man's failure to divine the future should lead him to success in controlling it?
Already in the ancient world there appear mentions of games where the throws of lots or dice, perhaps at first merely scored with counters on a board, give the excitement of chance to a game which is partly a draught-game, the player being allowed to judge with which pieces he will move his allotted number. In England this group of games is represented by backgammon. ”

“ Mr Payne used to narrate that, after dinner, he would sometimes stroll round there early, and, finding hardly anyone there except Crockford at his desk, used to sit down and play a game of backgammon with him, both being fine players. ”

“ Besides chess they had backgammon, or tables, as the game was called, Merelles, or Nine men's Morris (which also found its way to the shepherds' cottages) , dice, and card games, some of which I have described before. Gambling was often carried on to a great extent, but evidently our modern people are not wiser than their ancestors in this matter; and instead of playing games for recreation, are not satisfied until they [pg 113] lose fortunes on the hazard of a dice or a card. Let us hope that men will at length become wiser as the world grows older. ”

“ It is also a domestic game; and the figure is to be found on the back of some draught-boards. But to compare morris with that game, or with chess, seems absurd; as it has a very distant resemblance, if any at all, to either, in the lines, or in the rules of playing. On the ground, the men are pebbles, broken tiles, shells, or potsherds; on a table, the same as are used at draughts or backgammon. In Nares it is said to be the same as nine-holes. With us it is certainly different. ”

“ Then he learned to play at tables and at chess. [945] The game of tables is better known at present by the name of Backgammon. This pastime is said to have been discovered about the tenth century, [946] and the name derived from two Welsh words signifying "little battle." But I trust, as before observed, that the derivation may be found nearer home. The words are perfectly Saxon, as Bac, or Bæc, and gamen, that is, Back Game; so denominated because the performance consists in the players bringing their men back from their antagonists' tables into their own ”

“ Gambit.—This word is derived from an Italian phrase in wrestling, and signifies a movement by which the adversary is tripped up. In chess, this is attempted by the first player putting a Pawn en prise of the enemy early in the game, by which he is enabled more rapidly and effectually to develope his superior Pieces. There are several gambits, but the most important, and one which includes many others, is the King's gambit, commenced as follows:—
The Pawn offered by the first player here at his second move is called the Gambit Pawn, and when taken by the adversary the opening becomes a gambit. ”

“ I have heard a story of two persons playing at back-gammon, one of whom was so enraged at losing his match at a particular point of the game, that he took the board and threw it 234out of the window. It fell upon the head of one of the passengers in the street, who came up to demand instant satisfaction for the affront and injury he had sustained. The losing gamester only asked him if he understood back-gammon, and finding that he did, said, that if upon seeing the state of the game he did not excuse the extravagance of his conduct, he would give him any other satisfaction he wished for. ”

“ One does not, however, see good players confine themselves wholly to either game. As I said just now, one cannot volley every ball, and one needs to be able to make a severe stroke off the ground to get into position to volley. This one can do only by skill in back-play. Every well-known player of the present day believes that both back-play and volleying are necessary for a successful game, and the question now is not which to use, but how to mix the two. ”

“ When a player is running to save the gammon, if he should have two men upon his ace point, and several men abroad, although he should lose one point or two in his putting his men into his tables, it is his interest to leave a man upon his adversary’s ace point, because it will prevent his adversary from bearing his men to the best advantage, and at the same time the player will have a chance of the adversary’s making a blot which he may chance to hit. ”

“ It is the Big Bertha of tennis. It is the long range terror that should always score. The rules of footwork, position, and direction that govern the volley will suffice for the overhead. The swing alone is different. The swing should be closely allied to the slice service, the racquet and arm swinging freely from the shoulder, the wrist flexible and the racquet imparting a slight twist to the ball to hold it in court. The overhead is mainly a point winner through speed, since its bounce is so high that a slow placement often allows time for a recovery. ”

“ Attacks on the ball are best guarded against by placing the stick in front of the ball so as to ward off the thrusts in its direction. Any player may leave his place to attack the ball, but as soon as the centre player spies a vacant hole he may abandon the ball and aim to place his stick in the vacant hole. The players who may have left their places will then scramble for holes (or rings) , and one of their number will always be left as centre player. Such centre player then attempts to get the ball into the centre ring or hole. If successful, the game is begun over again. ”