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Friday May 23, 2008

Backgammon tourney invites young and old

If the terms “acey deucey,” “banana split” and “double bump” mean anything to you — or even if they don’t — Israel in the Gardens has an event for you.

The festival’s annual backgammon tournament will begin with registration at 10 a.m. with a $10 buy-in. There will be two tournament groups — one for youth 17 and under, and one for adults 18-plus.

The tournament is sponsored by the Jewish Community High School of the Bay in partnership with Kehillah Jewish High School. The proceeds will go to charity.

Backgammon, called Shesh Besh in Hebrew, is around 5,000 years old, with roots in ancient Greece and Rome, but the modern game was invented in England in the 1600s.

The game is played by two people with 15 checkers each, on a board consisting of 24 spaces. The checkers are moved according to rolls of the dice. Players try to move their checkers past those of their opponent and eventually remove all their pieces from the board, all while blocking their opponent from moving.

An “acey deucey” is a dice roll of one and two, a “banana split” is particular risky move in your home quadrant of the board and a “double bump” is removing two of your opponent’s checkers on one turn.

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