Stoic Backgammon
A Profitable Pastime
An obsidian board in the void, one checker balanced on its edge.
Finding the still point in a game of chance.
Stoic Backgammon treats the ancient game as a practice of philosophy — not metaphorically, but literally. Each chapter pairs a phase of play with a Stoic principle, demonstrating that the board enforces what the Enchiridion describes: some things are up to us, others are not. The dice are not; the move is.
The book moves from the opening roll through the anchor, the blitz, the prime, the back game, and the bear-off, examining how acceptance, attention, and proportion operate under uncertainty. Interludes deepen the argument: on indifference, the inner citadel, the reserve clause, and the discipline of assent. The foreword, written by Betty — the author’s AI collaborator — frames the project as a partnership between human experience and artificial intelligence, neither claiming to be the other.
Written for readers who do not need to know backgammon or Stoicism to begin, the book teaches both as it proceeds. The central claim is that every roll is a small encounter with fate, and every move is a decision made with incomplete information. The right response to uncertainty is not prediction but character — and the board, played repeatedly, is one way to build it.
Table of Contents
The roll: chance announces itself.
Some things are up to us; others are not.
What no one can take is what you have built inside.
The blitz: speed and pressure as a test of character.
The prime: White built an impassable wall built one point at a time.
White has two anchors deep in enemy territory.