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In "Shahnameh" which means "The King´s Book" and has been written in 11th century, the great Persian poet "Ferdowsi" credits Burzoe with the invention of the tables game "Nard" in the 6th century. He describes an encounter between Burzoe and a Raja visiting from India. The Raja introduces the game of chess and boasts of it as an Indian achievement, and Burzoe in turn demonstrates Nard, played with dice made from ivory and teak as the Iranian invention that could be counted as equal to chess.

"Takhteh Nard" is very similar to the Western version of backgammon with a few differences:

Contrary to the widely accepted belief, there is backgammon win in "Takhteh Nard" and is called "sag mars", which means "dog gammon". Thus, the main difference with the Western version, apart from the recently invented (1920s) "doubling cube" is that you can´t hit your opponent´s checker in your board and move the hitting checker, exept for when you are in the bear-off stage.The reason behind this rule is may be that Iranians see the "hit-and-run" move as a cowardly and unfair move which contradicts with the fighting spirit prevailing in backgammon. The effects of banning the "hit-and-run" move is reducing the probabilities of gammons greatly and making the game much more challenging and longer.

Some popular ideas among Iranian "Takhteh-baz", i.e Backgammon-players, are that they practically hate to make their ace point early in the game, even when they roll a 5-5. recirculating is much loved by Iranian BG players and they never risk to win a gammon when they can win a single for sure, as exchanging a sure good thing in hope of an unsure excellent one is considered a foolish move in the Iranian culture, as the old Persian proverb says: "Serkeye naghd beh az halvaye nesye" which means " the present vinegar is better than future Halva (kind of sweetmeat). The best openning moves in their opinion are 1-1 and 6-5 and with a 2-1 roll, they almost always play 13/11-6/5. They also are aware of the importance of the 5-pt and call it "Khuneye gedayi" or "begging house" as everyone actually begs to make his 5-pt as soons as possible. Yet, most of Iranians value the 7-pt as more important then 5-pt, as they believe that after making their 7-pt, it will be much easier for them to contain their opponent′s checkers because of the 3-pt prime which can be extended later. The Iranian players are usually good at backgames and priming games, but weak at blitzing and racing ones. But the most vulnerable part of their game is cube handling, as there is not such a thing in "Takhteh Nard" and they actually have almost no idea when to double and if ever planning to double, they most probably do it when their market is lost. In one word, they almost stick to the "old school of backgammon".

Though the ban on "hit-and-run" move combined with the non-existant doubling cube, makes "Takhteh Nard" a hundred times more time-consuming, as a Western player you may find it very bothering in the beginning, but as time goes by, you may get used to it and even find it as interesting and challenging as the Western version!