The history of Backgammon
The old history of Backgammon
The backgammon has a fascinating history that dates of 5000 years. The oldest version of Backgammon was called “Senate” and was played in the Old Egypt by the pharaohs. This old game was found during the excavations of Ur. Other Senate tables were found in Mesopotamia, Iraq of Today, in the excavations during the 20’s. Tables were also found in the tombs of King Tutankhamen in the Nile Valley.
The Backgammon is one of numbers of dice games. The origin of dices comes in his prehistory, when the bones of animal were used by the pagans to predict the future and by the tribal priests to call the spirits. Later on, the same dices were adopted for the population that used them to play and gamble on their results. The reason for which we use a dice with 6 faces is because it presents the optimal form of rolling.
The actual name of Backgammon comes either form the Saxons “back game” (”baec”: behind, “gamen”: game) or in a welsh expression means “small battle” (”bac” ou “bach”: small, “gammon” or “cammaun”: battle).
The history of Backgammon in the literature
The first reference of the Backgammon game in the British history appears in the Codex Exoniensis, dated from 1025, where it was called “table”. The first rule written from Backgammon was composed in 1743 by Edmond Hoyle, the treaty on the Backgammon.
The modern history of Backgammon
The modern backgammon was modified in 1920 when the cube doubling was inserted in New York. The cube raised the cunning element of Backgammon, which has, among other parts, raised the popularity of the game. In this period of the Backgammon was in fashion especially among the high society and was played in numerous salons and clubs.
The computers and the Internet make the history of Backgammon
Since the development of computers and Internet, the popularity of Backgammon has extremely grown and the backgammon is actually played on the web by millions of passionate in the entire world. During the 90’s, IBM, created a software to learn backgammon by using the Neural Networks, what generated players from top notch.
• FIBS (First Internet Backgammon Server) was created in 1992 by Andreas Schneider and operated for free from an academic computer in Sweden.
• Jelly fish- the first neural commercial network of software for online Backgammon was created in the 90’s.
• Snowie- Backgammon software on line was developed after Jellyfish with an easier use of interface and the ability of bringing and analyzing the parts.
Like in chess, the backgammon is also a game where the best players use computers. The game requires a big analytical ability and a sharp eye for the detail. The world of online Backgammon, especially across the online casinos, has given the game a popularity that you never knew during his 5000 years of History, and continue to bring modifications to the game, by contributing to the development and to the evolution of Backgammon in the online gambling industry.