Backgammon

Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on a tables board, the most widespread Western member of the tables family of games whose ancestors date back at least 1,600 years; the earliest record of backgammon itself dates to 17th-century England, descended from the 16th-century game of Irish. Each player has 15 pieces, traditionally called men and increasingly called checkers in the United States, that move along 24 points according to the roll of two dice, with the objective of moving all 15 pieces around the board and being first to bear them off. The game combines strategy with the luck of the dice: a single game's outcome can turn on the roll, but the stronger player accumulates a better record over a series of games, and the optional doubling cube lets players raise the stakes as play proceeds.