Backgammon

Said to have been invented in 10th cen tury. Game played by two persons with pieces on a board with 24 divisions according to the throws with two dice. Two principal games are played in Europe and America, one in which the pieces, 15 on each side, are set on certain points on the board at the commencement of the game, and the other, called Ru ian or Trietrac, in which they are not thus set, but each The Backgammon Table. player enters his pieces at the beginning at the same table and moves in the same direction. The game is common in China under the name of shéung luk , "double sixes" (in Japanese, sugoroko ), and is played in Siam under the name of saka , with a little tower into which the dice are thrown in the manner described by Greek and Latin authors.