Backgammon
a game of chance and calculation. It is played by two persons, with two boxes, and two dice, upon a quadrangular table, or board, on which are figured 24 points, or flèches, of two colors, placed alternately. The board is divided into four compartments, two inner and two outer ones, each containing six of the 24 points (alternate colors).
The players are each furnished with 15 men, or counters, black and white. These are arranged upon the board in the following manner: To play into the left hand table, two of your men are placed upon the ace-point of your opponent's inner table, five upon the sixth point in his outer table, three upon the cinque-point in your own outer table, and five upon the sixth point in your own inner table.
The adversary's men are to be placed in corresponding order, in a position directly opposite. The game consists in moving your men from point to point, so as to bring them around into your own inner table (i, e., that on your left hand), and then moving or bearing them off the board. The player who first clears off his men wins. The moves of the men are determined by the throws of the dice, according to the directions for playing.
It will there be seen that the most advantageous throw at the outset is that of aces, as it blocks the bar, or sixth point in your outer table, and secures the cinque-point in your inner table, so that your adversary's two men cannot move if he throw either quarter, cinque, or size. This throw is frequently contested by inferior players, at the commencement of the game, by way of odds. BACK RIVER As the grand object of the game consists in bringing around your men into your own inner table, all throws that contribute toward that end, and prevent your adversary from doing the same, are advantageous, and vice versa. Each party plays into one of the tables on his own side; thus, if black plays into his left hand table, white plays into his right (i. e., that which is exactly and vice versa, their men advancing in opposite) contraposition to each other. For right of first play each party throws a single die; he who throws the highest number wins, and may, if he chooses, adopt and play the joint number of the preliminary throw.