With the holiday season coming to its end and as the New Year begins, it is time to announce on the return of backgammon. And it is not self promotion, because we are not talking about online backgammon, but traditional backgammon played on a tangible board against human players who sit in front of you. 

Under the Christmas tree or beneath the coconut palm, because of the recession or due to their timeless nature, backgammon and other classic board games took the place of recent years’ consoles and massive multiplayer online games holiday gifts wish lists and in family gatherings. 

domestic bliss

Times Online pointed out the phenomenon and provided advice for families who want to remain in good terms even after a stormy session of scrabble. For example, don’t lose on purpose all of the time, but do mend the rules to allow the youngsters win naturally and do suggest a break when the battle gets too emotional. 

We also learned that the backgammon game in Lost might have a deeper, insinuating meaning: When Locke mentions the antiquity of the game, does he imply on the seniority of the island? Does the Black - White battle on the backgammon board symbolize the struggle between Jack and Locke? Evil and good? These assumptions evoked quite an excited discussion on Lost Theories (the comments are worth reading even if you are not a keen follower of the series).  

Just because I’m losing dosen’t mean I’m lost

And finally, we came to realize that backgammon is played everywhere around the world: in Malawi, Thailand, Cyprus and in the nearest online backgammon room.

Backgammon as a metaphor of life - a game that swings between luck and skill, and although the dice rolls guide our movements, we are the ones who make the decisions – lies in the heart of The World is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner (Svetat e golyam i spasenie debne otvsyakade), a Bulgarian-German-Slovenian-Hungarian co-production directed by Bulgarian filmmaker Stephan Komandarev.

Backgammon has more than a metaphoric presence in the film. Bai Dan, one of the two protagonists, is a talented amateur player who was even named King of Backgammon by the small café regulars in the small Bulgarian town. Alex, the second protagonist and Bai Dan’s grandson, continues the family tradition and becomes the new Backgammon King of the town, of course, only after he completed a the journey from Germany to Bulgaria through his past and present.

Watch a part of the movie:

More Backgammon Films:

Backgammon (USA, 1998) also uses backgammon is a tool of communication between grandfather and grandchild. In this film, the grandfather is a new Iranian immigrant and the grandchild is a granddaughter who carries double identity: American and Iranian.

Emotional Backgammon (UK, 2003) tagline: "Love is like a game of backgammon… You take your chances."

Reversal of Fortunes (USA, 1990) is based on the true story of Claus and Sunny von Bulow, he a famous playboy and former backgammon champ and she a wealthy heiress who is one day found unconscious on the bathroom floor. Guess who becomes the immediate suspect. The real story, by the way, had just ended recently, when Sunny, who remained in coma for 28 years, died.

In the TV series Lost, backgammon plays a frequent role. Where else?

Play65 is all around the world

Play65 or Play56?

Continuing with the Christmas spirit, here is a nice story on how handmade backgammon boards can make happier holidays for less fortunate children, as well as for those who have created the boards in their own hands.

The Daily Herald, the information source of Suburban Chicago, reports on the traditional charity auction held every year at the St. Charles East High School Little Theater for the benefit of the disadvantaged children of Mooseheart. The items sold on this auction were all created in the wood workshop of East High School by students and include various furniture, wooden toys such as hockey tables, backgammon, chess and checkers sets, and more. All the incomes from the wooden items sales will benefit the Christmas wishlists of, hopefully, 200 children from neighboring Mooseheart. The students-craftsmen are especially satisfied seeing their creations make other students happy.

St. Charles East High School is not the first organization to discover the joy of giving away backgammon boards. Last summer, Play65 donated 100 backgammon boards to special schools in Israel during the "Good Deeds" day. Well, great minds and all…

So, what are you buying me for Christmas? Some backgammon related suggestions for variety of budgets: 

Up to $10 

You can pamper your iPhone with the Gameloft latest version of Backgammon Classics for just $4.99. This iPhone backgammon game allows you to compete against real players (providing you two own the same mobile), just like in Play56. Moreover, you to roll the dice you shake the device, as long as you don’t do it in crowded places, someone might get hit.

Up to $50 

If you desperately seek play partners, a T-shirt with the inscription: "I backgammon", would make those backgammon players chasing you like a sweatshop employees after their morning train. Price for a basic 100% cotton white, large size T-shirt starts at $15.95.

don’t we all just luv backgammon

Up to $100 

An edible backgammon set made of chocolate in varying levels of darkness in which you can bear off the checkers right onto your mouth. Yet if you resist the temptation, this $75 chocolate board will last for 6 months, assuming you will not insist on taking it to the beach.

there’s also a chocolate molar for dentists

Up to $1,000

Speaking of backgammon boards, check out this psychedelic backgammon board looks like someone had accidently spilled pink, green and red paints and then let the cat walk all over it. The checkers and dice are surprisingly standard looking. This eye treat costs $795 and it includes a matching suitcase.

gr000vy!

Over $1,000

If you fancy a designer’s board, pay $1,144 and a backgammon board decorated by a woman face – smiling at the home board and frowning at the outer board – designed by Italian Piero Fornasetti, could be all yours.

Play65 new tell a friend bonus: 

Get $100 bonus on EVERY friend you refer to Play65

Your friend will get 100% bonus on his/her first deposit (up to $300)

yes, we are completely out of our minds

• €6,000 tournament with 128 potential winners. The tournament is scheduled to December 28 at 8:00 PM. Entry fees are priced at €60.
• €3,000 tournament: on Dec. 21 and Dec. 27 at 8:00 PM. 64 players will win prizes. Entry fees - €35
• €2,000 tournament: Dec. 20 and Dec. 14 at 8:00 PM. 64 players will win prizes. Entry fees - €23.

In addition, the next €1,000 online backgammon tournament will take place on December 13, 8 PM (€11.5 entry fees) and the next €600 tourney – in which you pay only €7 for the opportunity to be one of the 64 players who win prizes – will take place today on 8 PM.

and the holy grail

Just a quick reminder: the biggest backgammon tournament online with $30,000 1st prize will take place today at 20:00 GMT. 

Note that it might be the last grand online tournament of the season, so don’t miss the opportunity to be one of the 128 players who’ll win prizes and maybe even the one who wins the $30,000 grand prize. 

Play65 is happy to introduce brand new backgammon tournaments and bonuses:  

Before Sunrise Tournament (Freeroll) 

 Night birds or early risers can join an online backgammon tournament right after partying or before milking the cows. Everyday at 4am GMT, a freeroll tournament will be held on the Play65 server. The entry is free and the 1st prize is $60. Note that the freeroll has limited quota of 120 players, so set your alarm clock to 2am to ensure your participation.   

17 GMT Tournaments 

Clearly, this new tournament will be held daily on 17 GMT. Entry fees are paid in 2000 stars and the prize is $140 in real money. 

Coming soon - backgammon tournament with real money prizes for FUN players only

You will get an additional reminder with the details once these tourneys will begin. 

$30,000 Grand Online Backgammon Tournament 

Play65 grand tradition is coming to its end. December 1st, 2008 is your last chance to win $30,000 in an online backgammon tournament by winning no more than two games. Entry fee to the biggest backgammon tournament online is $150 and 128 players can win prizes. 

Play65 New Bonus

New 100% first deposit bonus on Play65:

Double your first deposit* by using the bonus code GET200

* Up to $200

The backgammon world is excited with the recent discovery that the doubling cube was invented by Russian royalty scion known as Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich.

 Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia is the inventor of the doubling cube

Up until now it was argued that the doubling cube was introduced to the backgammon world around the 1920s (though the basic concept of doubling was familiar from the game of golf). Now, more than 80 years after the invention changed modern backgammon and turned it into a faster, strategier and much more exciting game, Gammonlife publishes that Frank Frigo, the 1994 World Backgammon Champion spread the word and his collectors copy of 1930 The New Yorker, according to which Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia is the inventor of the doubling cube.                                                                              

Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia died in 1941, and most of the people surrounded the 1920 backgammon circuit are probably no longer with us, so no can approve or disapprove the accuracy of this claim. Anyway, let’s find out more on the guy who supposably invented the doubling cube: 

• Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich was born in 1891 to the Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia and Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark. His grandfather was Alexander II of Russia.
• In 1916 he was involved in the murder of Rasputin, a controversial Russian mystic who was related to the Tsar family. Similar to the doubling cube story, his exact involvement in the assassination have not been solved yet. However, recent studies show that he was the one who shot Rasputin (after the poisoning did not work as fast as planned), yet the blame was laid on his partner Prince Felix Yusupov, to guarantee Dmitri rise to the throne.

Ra Ra Rasputin

• While Dmitri was away on the Persian front, his family was murdered by the Bolsheviks. He immigrated to London and never came back to his homeland, and obviously never reached to the throne.
• Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich was known as a womanizer. His black list includes Russian ballerina Vera Karalli, the Duchess of Marlborough, Coco Chanel, and his Rasputin murder associate, Felix Yusupov.
• During his affair with French fashion designer Coco Chanel, the two had developed the Chanel No. 5 perfume, one of the world’s most popular perfumes till our days.
• Dmitri wed American heiress Audrey Emery and the couple raised one son in Florida.
• Living in America, Dmitri played an active part in the high society social life, where backgammon tournaments were a common leisure.

What Board Game Are You?

I am boggle, thus incredibly creative and resourceful, able to dig deep and think outside the box, a non linear thinker, don’t like following directions and draw constant inspiration from the strangest places.

Is there any backgammon out there?

And if so, what are the main characteristics of a backgammon person? He/she has to be analytical, patient yet quick minded with capability to plan things ahead and rescue themselves out of impasses. And they’ve got to love to play board games.

Thanks to Stello for the inspiration (who admits she’s more into backgammon although she’s as witty and clever as a game of scrabble) .