Backgammon

Originally posted Aug. 1 2005 at www.threeforcesofevil.typepad.com

BACKGAMMON
By John Ross Harvey

My wife and I watched LOST one night and saw Backgammon
She remembers playing it as a kid and wants to learn it again
I bought it for Christmas for her, and we’ve been playing.
My son and daughter have also picked up the game and play well.
Often beating us more than not.
However we mostly play one another while watching TV at night.
She plays much better as white, and I play much better as brown.
If you’re familiar with the game, the object is to jump places and get home.
You have 15 pieces to move, from 4 different start points.
You cannot remove pieces until they are in home field or last 6 spaces.
You can slow your opponent if you land on single pieces
Forcing them to start on your home field
They can do the same to you also.
Each number rolled on two dice is a move.
Rolling doubles gives you four moves instead of 2.
Once in home field any rolled number higher than your last piece will remove it.
So it’s advantageous to have your pieces as close to 1 as possible
So higher rolls will still remove your pieces.
The dilemma being, no matter how many matches I lose every night
I still win best of 7, almost every time.
I’ll be down 3-0 and win 4-3.
It’s all luck of the roll of the dice, but why does my luck make comebacks.
Is a win not a win unless it’s from behind?
That’s how races should be.
Cheer for the guy at the back charging through.
It’s a shame my wife doesn’t see it this way.