Not only in an online backgammon room.

The New Zealand restaurant "Ima and Ibn", co-owned by Israeli Yael Shochat and Palestinian Khaled Masroujeh, serves as a meeting place for the local Middle Eastern community. As such, the place is filled with hookah smoke and the sound of the dice dropping on the backgammon boards.

"Ima and Ibn", which means mother (in Hebrew) and son (in Arabic) was opened about a year ago on Fort St. Auckland, New Zealand after Shochat closed her former café, "Ima’s Kitchen", in which Masroujeh worked as a chef. The two, who had grown accustomed to the puzzled reactions to their, of all nations, joint venture, state that they share more similarities than differences "we are the same people from the same part of the world and have so much in common, especially our love of food", said Shochat to the New Zealand Sunday Star Times. Both of them have been living in New Zealand for about ten years, they take little interest in politics and rather look at the bright side.

Did a backgammon game ever drive you so mad that you flipped the board, tossed it off the window and threatened to choke your game opponent? Board Games Geek ran a contest on the wildest, most dramatic real life scenes following an innocent seeming board game. The winner was a story about a Trivial Pursuit player (with a tendency to sing the questions and shout out wrong answers) who founds himself dangling between earth and heaven from a second story balcony held by an annoyed game partner. 

Two backgammon stories pop in mind:

The first backgammon story started with a random shared cab drive in the streets of Moscow, continued with a proposal to play backgammon on a special handmade board and ended with the losing player’s being stabbed to death. However, no anger or loss of control preceded the fatal event; according to the reports, the alleged butcher agreed to play the game in one condition: the stake will be the losing player’s life. He even coolly asked his neighbor to clear up the bleeding body from the apartment. 

lost in a backgammon game

The second story does involve shaky tempers, and how. Not to mention who. Kenny Mayne, who you might recognize from ESPN sports channel, was reported accusing his 4.5 years old niece of cheating in a game of backgammon. Kenny’s sister, the poor girl’s mother, told the press she found her brother was shouting ‘You’re cheating, little girl! You’re cheating! You can’t cheat on me. I’m Kenny MickeyFickey Mayne!’ and her child crying of fear. After being expelled from his sister house, Kenny Mayne got a chance to rethink his behavior and arrived to the conclusion that: 

"I don’t feel bad about the situation. I feel bad about that punk cheating kid, and her dimwitted, enabler of a mother." 

cheated in backgammon

I think it is a winner. Do you think you can excel this one?

Robbie Williams is no longer living the wild sex drugs and rock n roll life. Since the British pop star moved to Los Angeles, he rather spend his nights following aliens and UFOs. "I’m obsessed about them and gutted I’ve not seen one yet." He confessed to the UK Mirror. So, when Australian pop singer Peter Andre announced moving to Los Angeles, Robbie Williams had immediately volunteered to show him around. 

Or in Robbie’s words, take him along to his UFO hunting patrols. In return with his new neighbor warm welcome, Andre intends to play backgammon with him and even teach him a thing or two about the game. "He is a big fan", Andre assured the British tabloid that Robbie Williams is not a rookie in the backgammon game. Look out it’s rough and mean.

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.