Back to gammon

The vinyl case cost less than $50, but it makes me feel like a million bucks. I hold it in my right hand as I walk the short distance from my house to a local pub. With each step I feel more in character. I become the type of charming rapscallion romanticized by literature.

Upon arrival at the watering hole, I open up the case, revealing its contents: two cups, 30 stones and four dies – five if you count the doubling cube. My case is no mere accessory. It houses a backgammon set.

Backgammon, I’ve learned, is one of the oldest board games in the world with roots going as far back as Ancient Babylon. A game called tabula – with rules almost identical to backgammon – was played in the Byzantine Empire during the 5th century. A good 1500 years or so later, I’m meeting my friend Mustafa to learn how to play; or rather, play better.

Born in Istanbul (backgammon is as common in coffeehouses as actual coffee in Turkey), Mustafa used to watch his father and older brother play for hours until one day mustering up the gall to challenge them. He beat both in such embarrassing fashions that they refused to play him again. Or so he tells me. Mustafa is a storyteller, but not one prone to self-aggrandizing, so I trust every word. And besides, I want to believe it. Stories, it seems, are as much a part of backgammon as the schadenfreude that comes from hitting an opponent’s blot (the term for an unprotected stone that when landed upon is sent to a purgatory within the game).

Another story I heard was from a woman named Marilyn who moved to Dawson City years ago to find locals enraptured by the game. Wanting to involve herself in her new community, she asked around, but couldn’t find anyone to teach her how to play ... without her first agreeing to play for money. After unwittingly donating hundreds of dollars to the local economy, she walked away with a new passion and hobby.

As for me, any romanticism I attached to my future as a derelict backgammon gambler was quickly severed by my first game. Despite his mercy and counsel throughout, I was thoroughly walloped by Mustafa. After a few more rounds he advised me to only play him gratis for now because once other players caught sight of my unsullied case, I’d be targeted.

The case that I thought had lent me a level of worldly refinement turned out to be nothing more than a blot of a different sort.