Game 89: Backgammon

 I feel like I keep writing this, but "here's another game we haven't played in a while."  I supposed that's bound to happen when playing all the games on the shelves, since playing current favorites repeatedly is a natural tendency.  I've been wanting to get back to classics for a while though - or at least for the past few weeks, since watching the documentary Alpha Go (which I highly recommend to any game enthusiast).  I've labeled this a classic, as it is one of the oldest known board games.  Backgammon is thought to have originated in Mesopotamia and has been played for approximately 5000 years. I figure if a game has that much staying power it's gotta be good.  Much as I love Seven Wonders and Splendor and Karuba, I'm not sure they'll still be played 5000 years from now, but I imagine Backgammon will continue to be played!
 I've just posted a few pictures from various points in the game.  Above, David has hit one of my checkers (blots) and placed it on the bar.  I had actually done it to him a number of times already in this game.  We played twice today, and he won both.  The picture below shows him at the point of starting to "bear off" his checkers.

 And in the picture above you can see how soundly he beat me.  I love the feel of our board and the pieces.  I also like the individualized dice (color matching your checkers).  It makes me happy.
 Three years ago I had the opportunity to go to the JMM, which is a very large math conference.  A (the?) highlight for me was to spend an evening playing Backgammon at an event hosted by Dr. Arthur Benjamin (standing in the center of the photo below).  He's an extraordinary gamer, mathematician and magician.  He's on the U.S. Backgammon Federation Board of Directors, and came in first in the American Backgammon Tour in 1997.  Though he hasn't played "officially" in about 20 years, he's still ranked 9th on the all-time points list.  So, yeah, it was way cool playing (even though as a beginner) at an event he organized.
 I'm in the black top and blue scarf below:
If you haven't heard of the amazing Art Benjamin before, do a search for his TED talk on "Mathemagic."  He's a very entertaining performer, and he makes math fun for everyone!


Actually, I'm just going to go ahead and link it here for easy access for those who want to see it!

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