Backgammon

Our smallest board from Flying Tiger, dime for scale.

While everyone else was going ga-ga over chess (The Queen’s Gambit was actually really good by the way.) I have been teaching Ana how to play backgammon.

I can’t remember when I learned how to play, but my mother didn’t teach me, I do remember her always playing the game with my aunt in Greece.  My youngest sister once told me that our mother did teach her how to play though.  Weird.

Anyway, I’m not an expert, I don’t analyze games or have the randomization and probability of dice rolls memorized (yes, it’s totally a thing in the backgammon world), I don’t even know the correct way they play in Greece because it’s a different set up then standard.  But, I enjoy it and have fun and that’s all that matters.

Backgammon is first and foremost a racing game.  And that’s why I like it.  Yes there is strategy involved but there is also the element of luck with the dice.  Unlike chess, which I could never wrap my head around.  I think Shadow was the only boyfriend I ever had who didn’t know how to play chess.  I tried many times to learn, I even read a book, but the game remains elusive to me.  Dino enjoys chess, and wants to get better at it.  His D and D buddies all play.  None of them play backgammon though.

Sometimes I beg Dino to play a game with me and he teases me and says “only if you play a game of chess with me”.  Our usable board is a chess, checkers and backgammon 3 in 1 wooden set up.  I also have a board I ordered from a Greek company that I managed to get for over half off (I guess cause everyone was sold out of chess boards for Christmas?), that is mine and Ana’s favorite board to play on.  Ana likes to look at boards that are almost 1000 dollars, like the new Galaxy Earth Board.  Yes it’s pretty, yes it’s hand made in Istanbul (not Constantinople), but baby girl better have an amazing job in 20 years to be able to afford a board like that!

What’s sad is that it is very much a male dominated game.  I wanted to buy her a pink board for Christmas before I settled on the Manopoulos, and the only one I could find was from an Italian company Zaza and Sacci for 900 bucks.  Yeah, no thank you.

Why must all my hobbies be dominated by very expensive products?

Again, it’s not about that.  It’s about having fun.  Ana and I have fun, and hopefully she is learning other important lessons as well, you know all that crucial child development stuff I learned about 15 years ago and have since forgotten.  So glad I didn’t pay for college!

Perhaps the day will come when Ana asks Dino to teach her how to play chess, but until then, backgammon is our mommy and daughter thing.