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Books on the history of backgammon

From:   Albert Steg
Address:   asteg@tiac.net
Date:   31 August 1998
Subject:   Re: History of BG
Forum:   rec.games.backgammon
Google:   asteg-3108981404120001@asteg.tiac.net

Laury Chizlett wrote:
> I have not seen much on the history of  BG. I see the occasional
> reference to "the 70s revolution": who was envolved and what was play
> like before that? ......

> ..I believe the historical development of a game of strategy is important
> in understanding the game itself,........I have not seen
> any reference to any book that covers BG history, even in part.

The Jacoby/Crawford features a section on the history of the game, but
not so much with regard to developments in checker strategy as to pictures
of beautiful boards throughout history.

The best way to gain the sort of perspective you'r looking for is to
actually find books written in a variety of periods and read them
yourself. Here are some titles I would recommend:

1800's:

   Find the earliest version of Hoyle that you can.  I've got one circa
1838 that has a delightful, fascinating section on bg -- much more than
mere rules.

1920's - 1930's

   This was the period of the big BG boom in America, when the doubling
cube was first introduced.  A number of lovely books were published (the
dust jackets tend to feature terrific deco colors & shapes) that capture
the feel of the game back then vividly.

_The New Backgammon_ by Elizabeth Clark Boyden
_Modern Backgammon_ by Gosnevor Nicholas
_Vanity Fair's Backgammon to Win_ by Georges Mabardi

   (Mabardi was reprinted in the 70's and isn't too hard to find -- though
for some sad reason they removed the cool little illustrations of
martinis, hors-douvres, and champagne settings that adorned the diagrams
in the original.  This book features the landmark proclamation that
"...accepted doubles can only be the result of imperfect play.")

1960's - 1970's

_The Backgammon Book_ (Jacoby/Crawford)
_The Playboy Book of Backgammon_ (Deyoung) -- especially rich in period
anecdotes, descriptions of tournament scenarios, style of play, etc.
_BG: The Cruelest Game_ (Cooke)
_Championship Backgammon_ (Cooke/Orleans)
_Backgammon for Blood_ (Becker)
_Backgammon_ (Magriel)

1980's - 1990's

Various books by Kleinman, Robertie, Woolsey and many others ushered in
the current era of thoroughgoing mathematical analysis of the game.  The
availability of effective computer applications for performing exhaustive
rollouts has made modern understanding  of the game even more
quantitative.

Happy reading.

Albert
 
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History

Backgammon in China  (Mark Driver, Jan 2001) 
Backgammon variants  (Raccoon, Aug 2003) 
Books on the history of backgammon  (Albert Steg, Aug 1998) 
Changes in backgammon over the years  (Joe Russell, July 2009) 
Doubling in the 17th Century?  (David Levy+, Dec 2003)  [GammOnLine forum]
Murray's "History of Boardgames Other than Chess"  (Dean Jameson, Apr 2002) 
Origin of backgammon  (Greycat Sharpclaw, Oct 1997) 
Recent changes  (Joe Russell+, July 2009) 
The effect of bots on the game  (Daniel Murphy+, May 2005)  [GammOnLine forum]
The name "backgammon"  (Jive Dadson+, Dec 2002) 
The name "backgammon"  (Marina Smith, Jan 1998) 
The name "backgammon"  (Albert Steg, Mar 1995) 

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