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Backgammon (”Bac gamen” or “back game” as it was called during the Middle Ages) is one of the oldest surviving board games in the world, together with chess and go. Being quite ancient and widespread, backgammon has many variations. An Egyptian board game called Senet is generally considered to be its ancestor. Boards and paintings that showed the Egyptians playing the game were recovered in tombs. If the theory is true, it makes backgammon history go back about 5,500 years.

Excavations in Iran and Iraq have yielded evidence of backgammon-like games as well. In Sistan, archeologists found an ebony board with dice and sixty playing pieces. Other boards were also discovered in Sumerian royal tombs, and the game there was thereafter called the Royal Game of Ur. Some boards even had Senet and the Royal Game on reverse sides of the same boards. This bolsters the theory that backgammon originated with the Egyptians and was adopted by neighboring peoples.

Among the Romans, several types of board games were played, including Ludus Duodecim Scriptorium (”Game of Twelve Lines”). This is cited in Ovid’s The Art of Love. While very similar to backgammon, it was played with three dice instead of two. A later game, Tabula (”table), closely resembled modern backgammon even more. The Romans loved backgammon and many a Roman emperor became addicted to it and to other games of chance. Roman soldiers spread backgammon throughout the Empire, and with it their fondness for gambling. An old backgammon variant from Iceland, called Chasing the Girls, is believed to have been inspired by the Romans.

Backgammon history involved Asia too. The Persians developed Nard, a variant of backgammon, and spread it to the rest of Asia. Nard is mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud as Nardschir. From Persia the game made its way into India, China and Japan where it was known by different names.

France fell in love with backgammon and had its own version of the game as well. King Louis IX imposed laws prohibiting the game, but in vain.

The Castilian monarch Alfonso X wrote his important Book of Games in the 13th century, marking the first time that the variations, rules of backgammon and even a few backgammon tips were recorded.

Backgammon persisted throughout the Middle Ages despite the attempts of the Church to quash it. In 16th century England, backgammon went underground for a while as foldable boards that could pass for books.

The game somewhat faded in popularity during the Victorian era onward. But the restoration of the doubling cube in 20th century America revived interest in backgammon. Doubling first appeared in around 1660 in the Book of Games published in England.

The first international backgammon tournament was played in 1979, the Backgammon World Championship. In the same year, the reigning champion, Luigi Villa of Italy, lost one game to a backgammon computer program.

This ancient backgammon game was a perennial favorite among the aristocracy. Famous people like Thomas Jefferson and Charles Darwin were avid players of backgammon. Acey-Deucy, one of its variants, is the traditional game of the US Navy and Marine Corps. And with the advent of the Internet, backgammon now thrives as an online game.