by Albert Steg
The doubling cube has come to be such an essential part of competitive backgammon that it’s hard to imagine there was a time when players kept track of game stakes by any other method. This page traces the early evolution of doubling practices and doubling devices from the introduction of doubling sometime in the mid 1920’s through the 1930’s when the jazz-age fever for backgammon cooled, and then deeper into the 20th century.
Readers should keep in mind that for many players from the 1960’s on, “the cube” has come to be synonymous with “doubling,” so if someone in the 1970’s writes “The cube was invented in the mid-1920’s,” they may just mean that doubling was invented then. But doubling is an action, while the cube is a device that has become a handy metonymy for doubling. For backgammon historians, “Who invented doubling?” and “Who invented the cube?” are questions with different answers.
Comments, questions, corrections and additions are invited!
Albert Steg: info@nebackgammon.org