The Games and Puzzles Journal, #5+6 - Mayhematics

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THE GAMES AND PUZZ,LES JOURNAL
BACKGAMMON - A Ctts|4enge frcm tihe East
By Dennison NIXON
My first Backgammon set was won in the Sunday School sports when I was about eight
years old, but I did not realise what it was because it was in the usual form of a shallow
box with a draught-board on the outside. The coloured points on the inside I imagined to
be merely decorative and the 12 + 12 draughtsmen included seemed intended for that game,
as indeed they were. It was not until several years later that I discovered from Fosterrs
Complete Hoyle that the coloured points were aetually those of a backgammon board and
that 15 + 15 men were required, though only 12 + 12 men were supplied, no doubt some
oversight by the marketing firm.
From that time I have played the game regularly, especially during my 16 years with
British Steel where we found it ideally suitable for lunch-time play, a game averaging only
about 1.0 minutes. As we had a steady influx of new-comers, I must have taught dozens
of people to play the game, and always drew attention to the fact that Backgammon is
one of the few games where there is almost always a chance that the under-dog may win
in the end. Also, to indicate that the game had at least one distinguished exponent, I would
inform them that Charles Darwin played two games almost every evening with his wife
Emma, and kept records of the results running into thousands of games.
Opening
Position
for
rHitt
Light
WHITE
After almost a life-time of regular if not too intensive Backgammon I was therefore
much surprised to find in a local public library the following statements in a book entitled
Backgammon, Games and Strategies by Nicalaus and Basil Tzannes: "Plakoto and Moultezim
are much more interesting than Hit" the name the authors use to distinguish our Western
form from the two Greek and Middle-Eastern games. Again: '?plakoto is Ine king of Backgammon
games. Moultezim is a serious game for the fundamentalist, the pure strategist,
the complete BaeJ