Backgammon, Baby!

It's an exercise in frustration -- you can make the right moves and lose, or you can make the wrong moves and win.  ~ Paul Magriel, known as "The Best in Backgammon"

I can still recall the year and the location and the person who taught me how to play backgammon. Although my college roommate and I had had a falling out our senior year, we did get together with a mutual friend in New York a year after graduation, in 1973. Margaret, who minored in math, patiently taught me the basics of backgammon, and I was hooked enough to purchase a backgammon board for my own. Ten years later, when I was first dating Pete (my late husband), I brought out my backgammon board. On a summer afternoon on my back deck, Pete taught me how to play acey-deucy, a variation on backgammon. What I recall is the patience he had as he walked me through the game. He did not seem to mind that I was a slow learner. I will admit that today, I have no idea how to play acey-deucy. But backgammon? It's like riding a bike.

No, it's not like riding a bike at all. There is no strategy in riding a bike. And while strategy is not my strong suit, I have enough of it to win a few backgammon games. And I think luck plays as much (if not bigger) a part in backgammon wins.

Backgammon is one of the oldest known board games with origins in the Middle East dating back over 5,000 years. There are a lot of rules to backgammon, but it is possible to enjoy the game without getting too involved in all the ins and outs of play. There's a Murphy Rule, a Jacoby Rule, a Crawford Rule, and a Holland Rule. Do I know what any of them are? No! But I can still play. I have no idea what that "doubling cube" is for, but I can still play. I sort of know what a "gammon," a "backgammon," and a "double backgammon" are, but they're not important.

Paul Magriel, who died just last month at the age of 71, was known as the best backgammon player in the world. He played George Plimpton blindfolded and still won. Magriel began as a renowned chess player, but he switched over to backgammon in Greenwich Village in the 70s while he was a doctoral student at Princeton. (He later turned to poker as his game of choice, becoming known as a gambler.) In 1982, in Oregon vs. Barr, the question of whether backgammon was a game of skill or chance was debated. Skill won, removing backgammon from the regulations of gambling games.

In a 1978 interview in Gambling Times magazine, Magriel had this to say: "Games are controlled violence. You can take out your frustrations and hostilities over a backgammon set, where the rules are clearly defined -- in contrast to life, where the rules are not so well defined. In games, you know what is right and wrong, legal versus illegal; whereas in life, you don't."

Well, I don't know about "controlled violence" in this instance. But I recently got out my 45-year-old backgammon board, and my guy and I you-tubed some information to refresh our memories in regard to how to play the game. Our subsequent backgammon marathons have been full of laughter and groans. If that's "controlled violence," so be it.

I think we're just passing the time and having fun.