The upcoming US presidential election is a good opportunity to recall the times when the White House was hosting large scaled backgammon tournaments. Here’s a little priceless backgammon quiz for you: which past US president had the hots for backgammon? And the answer is George P. Bush. Not the reigning W, but his old man, who is so obsessed with backgammon that his favorite book is Bruce Becker’s Backgammon for Blood (a cult backgammon book from the 1970s).   

This fascinating inside information came from the mouth of the George and Barbara Bush’s grandson, the son of Jeb Bush, in a 2006 interview for Men’s Vogue. He also talked about a single elimination backgammon tournament for 64 players, conducted by the former first lady a year earlier and mentioned that the secret of how to play backgammon is one of the most important legacies passed from generation to generation in the Bush family.   

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 at 12:53 pm and is filed under Playing Backgammon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.