🚀 go-pugleaf

The following was taken without permission from "How to Play Backgammon" by
Arman Ratip, 1977, Spring Books.  The book itself is a small (about 60 pages,
with LOTS of illustrations, including a move-by-move analysis of a complete
game) introduction for the beginner who knows _nothing_ about backgammon
(my condition when I purchased the book 14 years ago...). 

"The idea of doubling is a very recent addition to the game of backgammon.
Introduced as recently as the 1920's, doubling is the method by which stakes 
can be raised while play is in progress.  Players in Western Europe and North
America often argue that doubling has brought action and excitement to the 
modern game.  And certainly it's this increased emphasis on gambling which has
stimulated the recent boom in backgammon.  However, I prefer the traditional
method of gambling simply on the outcome of a game or match.  Today, under the 
rules of doubling, a game must be abandoned if a player rejects a double.
But under the original rules each contest had to be played right through to
the end.  To do otherwise seems to me to do violence to the very nature of the 
game.  Backgammon is a contest in which fortunes can be reversed even when the 
issue seems certain.  Just one throw of the dice can change the whole course 
of the game.  The closing stages of a backgammon game are always the most
exciting and to stop short of the end is, for me, no way to play at all."

Interesting viewpoint, I think...

					-=Dave