Arabic Shesh Besh: the rules
Arabic Shesh Besh is a simple dice game on the backgammon board, played in homes and cafés. In Egypt it's called "اليهودية" (al-Yahudiyya), and in 17th-century England it was played under the name Doublets. There's no contact between the players and no decisions: whoever has better dice wins.
The setup
Each player has 15 checkers in their home, in stacks: three on the 6, 5 and 4, and two on the 3, 2 and 1.
Stage one: laying down
- Each number on the dice lays down one checker from the stack of that number, placing it beside the stack, on the same point.
- The bottom checker is already "down": in a stack of three you lay down twice, in a stack of two once. 9 lay-downs in all.
- A number with nothing to lay down is wasted.
Stage two: bearing off ("eating")
- Each player switches to bearing off on their own, as soon as they've finished laying down, without waiting for the opponent. On the turn you finish laying down, the leftover die is wasted.
- Each number bears off one checker from its point. If there's no checker there, the number is wasted.
Doubles
You play them four times, then roll again. Doubles again? Roll again, with no limit.
How to win
Whoever bears off all 15 checkers first wins: one point, or a gammon (two points) if the opponent hasn't finished laying down yet.
Where it comes from
- It is one of the oldest board games around. The Book of Games of Alfonso X, king of Castile, already describes a close relative called Doblet in 1283.
- In 17th and 18th century England it was called Doublets, or the "Queen's Game". In France it was Dames rabattues, and in Iceland it was still played at the start of the 20th century.
- In Egypt children learn tawla with it, and there it is called "اليهودية", "the Jewish one". In Hebrew it's "Arabic" and in Egypt "Jewish": each side named it after the neighbours.
- Doubles: in England a double laid down or bore off as many checkers as the two dice add up to (4-4 = eight), and in France and Iceland it gave another roll. Here it's both: four times, and another roll.
- In an old English version, a number you couldn't use went to your opponent. Here it goes to waste.
Not to be confused with Mahbusa, which some people also call "Arabic Shesh Besh": there you play on the whole board and pin your opponent's checker.