In short: No single person invented backgammon: dice-and-race games like it are around 4,500 years old, and a recognisable version, tabula in the Roman world and nard in Persia, was played about 1,500 years ago. The English name, Hoyle's 1743 treatise and the doubling cube came much later.
This guide follows the game from the royal graves of Ur to the courtyards of Yerevan, separating evidence from legend.
Ancient race games: Ur, senet and the Burnt City
The Royal Game of Ur takes its name from the Royal Cemetery at Ur in present-day Iraq, where Sir Leonard Woolley found boards in the 1920s. The British Museum dates its board to 2600–2400 BC. Each player had seven pieces to race across twenty squares, with tetrahedral dice deciding the moves. A Babylonian tablet of about 177 BC preserves the rules of a later version, which the British Museum's Irving Finkel used to reconstruct how the game was played.
Egypt's senet, played on thirty squares, may go back to around 3000 BC, though its original rules are only partly known. At Shahr-e Sukhteh, the Burnt City in Iran, a game set from the third millennium BC was billed in 2004 as the world's oldest backgammon. Its board has twenty spaces, though, and specialists place it with the Ur type of race game. Such games are often called precursors of backgammon, but some scholars argue that backgammon evolved separately.
Nard: the Persian game behind nardi
Persian tradition places the invention of backgammon, under the name nard, in the Sasanian age (AD 224–651), crediting either the dynasty's founder Ardashir I or the sage Bozorgmehr, who served King Khosrow I (531–579).
The fullest account is a Middle Persian text, The Explanation of Chess and the Invention of Backgammon, whose core scholars date to the late Sasanian period. An Indian court sends chess to Persia as a challenge; the sage Bozorgmehr (Wuzurgmihr in the text) masters it and answers with a game of his own, nēw-ardaxšīr, named after Ardashir. Its board, counters and the roll of the die mirror the cosmos and the pull of fate. The word nard is usually explained as a shortening of that name.
It is legend, and scholars still disagree about where the game began: Persia, the Roman world and India have all been proposed.
Rome and Byzantium: tabula and Emperor Zeno
The Romans played ludus duodecim scriptorum, "the game of twelve lines", which Ovid mentions around the start of our era; most surviving boards have three rows of twelve points. Its likely successor, tabula, dropped the middle row, leaving 24 points, fifteen pieces a side and three dice: a close relative of backgammon.
A sixth-century poem by the Byzantine writer Agathias gives our clearest picture of tabula. It describes Emperor Zeno, who died in 491, throwing 2, 5 and 6 with his three dice: the only way to play all three numbers was to break up his safe pairs of checkers, leaving single, exposed pieces.
Medieval tables and why it is called backgammon
Tables games spread across medieval Europe. A set found in 1983 on the site of a Norman castle in Gloucester, dated to around 1100, is described by its museum as the earliest surviving complete tabula set. In 1283 the court of Alfonso X of Castile completed the Libro de los juegos, a manuscript on chess, dice and tables that includes Todas Tablas, a game some scholars compare with backgammon.
English speakers said "tables" for centuries. The word backgammon is first recorded in the mid-1600s, probably from back and Middle English gamen, "game", perhaps because checkers are sometimes sent back. In 1743 Edmond Hoyle published a treatise on its laws and the odds of being hit.
The doubling cube and the modern game
The great change of the modern era is doubling. In the 1920s, by the usual account, players in New York's gaming clubs began offering to double the stake, and the opponent could accept or give up the game on the spot. The inventor is unknown, and the numbered cube that marks the stake followed within a few years. It turned backgammon into a contest of nerve as well as skill.
A world championship was first staged in Las Vegas in 1967, and since 1979 it has been based in Monte Carlo. Today's board, with 24 points and fifteen checkers a side, echoes Zeno's, minus one die. A board in that tradition is our Classic Wooden Backgammon Set, 60 cm, carved from one piece of beech, with a draughts board on the reverse.
Backgammon history at a glance
| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| c. 2600–2400 BC | Royal Game of Ur boards buried at Ur |
| c. 1 BC | Ovid mentions the Roman "game of twelve lines" |
| 5th–6th century | Zeno's tabula game, later told by Agathias; Persian tradition credits nard to Bozorgmehr |
| 1283 | Alfonso X's Libro de los juegos |
| Mid-1600s | "Backgammon" first recorded in English |
| 1743 | Hoyle's treatise on backgammon |
| 1920s | Doubling appears in American clubs; the cube follows |
| 1967 and 1979 | First world championship; Monte Carlo becomes its base |
One game, many names
Most names go back to the board itself (Latin tabula, "board") or to Persian nard.
- Iran: nard, or takhte nard
- Turkey: tavla
- Greece: tavli, a set of three games (portes, plakoto and fevga)
- Arabic-speaking countries: tawla (tawle in Lebanon), literally "table"
- Israel: shesh besh, "six, five"
- Russia: nardy; Georgia and Armenia: nardi
Nardi in Armenia: long nardi and short nardi
In Armenia nardi is an everyday sight: in warm weather older players gather over boards in Yerevan's courtyards. The name covers two related games. Short nardi follows rules close to international backgammon. In long nardi all fifteen checkers start on one point, both players move in the same direction and there is no hitting: a point held by even one checker is blocked. Armenian players have even devised a three-player version.
Our Armenian-design boards carry this tradition. The Eagle Backgammon Set with Mount Ararat, 60 cm, is carved from one piece of beech and shows an eagle with our copyrighted outline of Mount Ararat, which stands in present-day Turkey and remains a central symbol of Armenian identity. Read the story behind our Mount Ararat designs or browse the Armenian nardi collection.
Why a carved board matters
Makers have long decorated game boards: the Ur board in the British Museum is inlaid with shell plaques, some decorated with rosettes. In our workshop, where master Hrachya Ohanyan began his work in 1985, the playing field of many boards is carved from a single piece of wood, with hinges and locks of cast bronze. The Two-Sided Ornamental Backgammon Set carries an Armenian ornament on each side, and on our personalised boards we engrave a name, date or short wish inside. Learn more about the workshop.
Frequently asked questions
Who invented backgammon?
No one person did. It grew out of ancient dice-and-race games and took a recognisable form in the Roman and Persian worlds. Persian tradition credits Ardashir I or the sage Bozorgmehr, but that is legend, and scholars still debate where the game began.
How old is backgammon?
The race games it grew from are around 4,500 years old: the Royal Game of Ur dates to about 2600–2400 BC. Backgammon as we would recognise it, under the names tabula and nard, is documented in the 5th and 6th centuries AD. Chess, by contrast, has no credible evidence before the 6th century AD, so the ancestors of backgammon are much older.
Is nardi the same as backgammon?
Nardi is the Armenian and Georgian name (nardy in Russian) for a family of related games. Short nardi is close to international backgammon, while long nardi is a different game: all fifteen checkers start on one point, both players move the same way and there is no hitting.
Why is it called backgammon?
The word is first recorded in English in the mid-1600s and is probably built from back and Middle English gamen, "game". One explanation is that checkers are sometimes sent back and must start again. Before that, English speakers called the game "tables".
Explore our backgammon and nardi sets
If this history has made you want a board of your own, start with our handmade backgammon sets or the walnut backgammon sets, and learn how to play before your first game. Our guide to choosing a handmade backgammon set explains woods, sizes and designs.
