One of the many things that attracted me to my wife is that she shares my love for games, particularly board games. We have been talking about writing some joint reviews about the games we love in the near future, but I wanted to start out with the game that is more of my passion, backgammon. I am not saying that my wife does not like backgammon, but I do think she often plays it more to humor me than from a shared zeal.

If memory serves me correctly I got my first backgammon board for Christmas when I was eight. At the time, I wanted to be a real hardcore chess player, but I realized that I was burning up the good will of my family members so I needed to add a little variety to our game time. Lucky for me, Santa brought me the amazing Pressman set that you see below.

Honestly, it is a pretty horrible set, but as you can see from the loving condition I kept it in after more than 30 years of use it meant a great deal to me. I have upgraded my board a few times over the years, but I can never seem to get rid of the original.

My new (well new to me) wooden board is made in the traditional hinged “box” pattern, and includes heavy stone pieces. It is truly a joy to play with.

So why do I love this game? Part of the answer goes back to my early days of playing chess. The more and more books I read about chess, it seemed to me that all you had to do is memorize sequences of moves. The player with more sequences remembered would probably win. On the other hand backgammon uses dice to add in some random chance to the skill. In fact I have often noticed that there is something about the dice that will make a beginner harder to play than an experienced player.

Backgammon is also one of those games that seems to encourage socialization and a well played game over winning. This is the stereotype of old men playing checkers in front of the general store, my actual experience of playing dominoes with Latin American friends, and some card games. I have often seen pictures of men sitting in coffee shops (apparently for hours) in the Middle East sipping coffee and tea playing backgammon on beautiful mosaic boards, so I don’t think my assertion is too far off the mark.

While my eight year old self probably did not give chess it’s proper due (and I have been trying to improve my chess skills again), I do think more people should give backgammon a try. It is truly a beautiful game to play, and goes well with both tea and beer in my experience. The most important thing is to bring along a good friend to enjoy it with.