We have all grown accustomed with the presence of the backgammon game in our lives and at the same time we have forgotten everything about its history. As a matter of fact, there are few of us that actually know that the game actually originated somewhere in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt.

Archeological digs have revealed ancient board sets that are remarkably similar to our modern day backgammon board. Even writings on various temples describe a dice game involving a board and some pieces that needed to be moved in a certain pattern. There have been found artifacts in Iran which are believed to be older than five thousand years and this goes to show that the game has been around for a long time.

If we are to take a leap forward into history, we will find other historical references from the Roman Empire that describe a game with a board and three rows where the player had to move the pieces according to the roll of the dice. As we can see, the backgammon game survived for at least three thousand years without significant changes to its rules.

As we approach a more recent time frame, will notice a tendency to include the game into the gambling domain for as in eleventh century France the game used to be the main attraction for gamblers. Since this turn of events, the game has been banished for a short while being considered illegal, but bounced back in the eighteenth century.

As times changed, so did the game, thus various modifications have been made, turning it into mathematical and probabilistic game where you could easily predict the winner from the first couple of moves. Once we started looking at the game from the logical point of view, the strategies have been changed and winning the game was only a matter of calculating the odds for each player, rather than leaving it to fate or luck.

The game as we know it today is a result of thousands of years of evolution and changes that it has been submitted to in order to become a worldwide known game and sport at the same time. After all, a game with this much history is sure to become known and appreciated by everyone. What’s interesting to see is that the backgammon game can be considered a legacy of mankind that has survived throughout the ages and managed to reach us even in our present days.