The Ancient Game of Backgammon Tabula

Backgammon tabula is something that fascinates most players. It is actually the original Roman version, a predecessor of the current game. The name tabula is apt, as tabula is Latin for board or table. That the game was popular even in those times is apparent from the sources in ancient history. Legend has it that tabula had a royal fan in Emperor Claudius.

Being the predecessor, backgammon tabula has many similarities and a few differences with the current game. The layout is the same 12 triangles to a board and 15 pieces per player. The difference was that there was no fixed rule to starting the game; any player could start the game. They used dice to zero in on their starting points.

The movement of the checkers was also the same in backgammon tabula as the current backgammon game; they moved in a horseshoe pattern. One notable difference was that players started from the same place and moved in the same direction while in the current game the players start at different places and move in opposing directions. One more major difference was in the number of die used tabula used three compared to the two used in the current version. A single dice stood for movement of a single piece. There was no double dice in tabula as the concept of doubling was absent then.

The objective of backgammon tabula was the same as that of the current version to move all the pieces to the finishing area and get them off the board. Positional play was also same; your checker could occupy either an empty space or a space with a single opposing checker. There are other similarities as well: a blot required a checker to be moved to the bar. Re-entry had to be done before any other checker could be moved. However, in this game, you could use the second half of the board only after you had all your checkers on the board.

Finally, one similarity that speaks volumes of the human mindset tabula too was played for money, though the excitement must have been reduced to an extent owing to the lack of improvisations such as doubling.