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.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 8:53 am 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.