Backgammon   Backgammon is a board game for two players. Each player has fifteen pieces (checkers) which move between twenty-four triangles (points) according to the roll of two dice. The objective of the game is to be first to bear off, that is, to move all fifteen checkers off the board. The oldest recorded game in history, backgammon traces its roots to the ancient Mesopotamian game tabula, which appears in an epigram of Byzantine Emperor Zeno (476–481 A.D.). Further archaeological excavations have placed the possible date of origin of backgammon to 3000 B.C. Though the gameplay is quite basic—each player is trying to move his checkers to his home board and then bear them off before his opponent is able to do so—backgammon incorporates strategy insofar as with each dice roll, the player must choose between multiple options for movement of the checkers. Furthermore, the doubling cube, which raises the stakes of the present game when a match consists of multiple games, and rules like the Crawford Rule and the Jacoby Rule, introduce more strategic intricacies. Experts have also developed a nomenclature to define commonly used general strategies for play such as the running game and the backgame. As with chess, backgammon has been significantly interfaced with computer technology. By 1979, Hans Berliners BKG 9.8 program had defeated a world champion backgammon player, and since then neural network and other approaches have improved the playing quality of the virtual backgammon opponent. In addition, a number of other computer programs, most notably Snowie, have combined the capabilities of an intelligent opponent with extensive statistical analyses of individual moves and possible outcomes. History Medieval tabula players, from the 13th century Carmina Burana Backgammon is the oldest known recorded game. Traditionally, it was believed to have originated in ancient Mesopotamia, (present-day Iraq), also see Royal Game of Ur. In English, the word backgammon is believed to be derived from ack plus the Middle English word gamen (game). Tabula was a form of backgammon played by the ancient Romans. It was called tabula, which means able or oard, since it was played on a special board. Tabula bears some similarity to Egyptian Senet, which dates back to at least 3000 BC. The game of Tabula was similar to modern-day Backgammon in that the same board was used with fifteen pieces alloted to each player with the object of the game being to be the first to bear off all fifteen pieces. It differed in that the game began with no pieces on the board so that these first had to be entered by the roll of the dice. Likewise, three dice were used instead of two. Finally, both players entered the board from the same table and moved around the board in the same counterclockwise direction. Recent excavations at the Burnt City in Iran showed that a form of backgammon existed there around 3000 BC. The artifacts include two dice and 60 pieces. The set is believed to be 100 to 200 years older than the oldest set found in Ur.