Vanity Fair's Backgammon to Win, by Georges Mabardi, Clare Boothe Luce

Backgammon Books

Vanity Fair's Backgammon to Win

AUTHORS: Georges Mabardi
Clare Boothe Luce

YEAR: 1974

PUBLISHER: The Condé Nast Publications, Inc.

CITY: New York, New York

SBN: 671-21766-6

PAGES: 145

SIZE: 18 cm high, 13 cm wide

OTHER
EDITIONS: Horace Liveright, 1930

TRANSCRIP-
TION: http://www.bkgm.com/books/Mabardi/Transcription/

READERS
COMMENTS:

"This book has a delightful chapter regarding etiquette, which pays the price of admission. There, vividly and hilariously, the authors portray the various characters who populate the board's environs. Backgammon theory may have evolved during the last 60 years, but human nature evidently has not.
Excerpt: 'Even worse than the chortler and the grouser, is the coaxer, that pathetic and heart-breaking wooer of Fate, who announces to his dice box before every throw what sweet sights he would like to see issue from it.'"—Paul Tanenbaum, February 1998

CONTENTS:

Publisher's Note
Foreward
PART I: FOR THE BEGINNER
I. Mechanics of Play: The Set-up, The Start, Playing the Throws, Taking Up, Object of the Game, Bearing Off, The Double
II. General Strategy: Cardinal Principles, Inner Table Blots, Making Points, The Closed Board, Position, Tactics
PART II: FOR THE EXPERIENCED PLAYER
I. "Modern" Backgammon
II. The Opening Moves
III. The Four Games
IV. General Strategy
V. Bearing Off
VI. The Double
VII. The Odds
PART III: FOR EVERY PLAYER
The Etiquette of Backgammon
Axioms for Backgammoners
Glossary

COVER: It was a time of great style and great heroes—Greta Garbo and Jean Harlow on the screen, Bobby Jones and Babe Ruth breaking sports records; Hemingway, Fitzgerald; and in society Eddy Duchin played for Brenda Frazier, El Morocco and the Stork Club flourished, and the country was swept up in a new national pastime—the first great flowering of backgammon. Georges Mabardi was the backgammon columnist for Vanity Fair and in 1930 he published the most authoritative book written on the game, including in it two chapters by Clare Boothe Luce. This book, long out of print, is now available again. Illustrated with numerous two-color board drawings, it covers every aspect of the game, from the basic mechanics of play for the beginner to more sophisticated backgammon moves and theories. Bound in this easy-to-use digest size, Backgammon to Win is indispensable to every backgammon player anxious to play the game as the masters do.
Why we revived this book: When it was first published in 1930, Vanity Fair's Backgammon to Win readily proved itself the best no-nonsense guide to a fascinating game. From time to time backgammon fanciers asked us to reprint it, but the game had inexplicably lost a great deal of its popularity. Now—and just as inexplicably—the popularity has revived. So, for this new generation of players, we again offer the best no-nonsense guide to the game. Follow its advice and you will enjoy backgammon more ... and possibly end up a little richer.

ABOUT THE
AUTHORS: George Mabardi has played, taught and studied backgammon all his life. He was born and educated in Alexandria, Egypt, and later studied at the Sorbonne and the Ecole des Droits in Paris. In the twenties this sportsman and adventurer made his way to New York and later wrote for Vanity Fair.
Clare Boothe Luce, playwrite, Congresswoman and columnist, was the Managing Editor of Vanity Fair during the thirties and contributed her own enthusiasm for the game to Mr. Mabardi's amusing and instructive book.