rulesstrategybeginners
Bearing off is the last phase of a backgammon game: taking your checkers off the board entirely. It looks like the part where nothing can go wrong, which is exactly why more won games are lost here than anywhere else.
When can I start bearing off?
Only when all fifteen of your checkers have reached your home board, the six points nearest you. Not fourteen. If a single checker is still outside, or sitting on the bar, you may not take anything off until it is home.
That is the rule most often broken by accident, and it has a sharp consequence: if you are hit after bearing off has begun, the checker goes to the bar and has to re-enter and travel the whole way back before you may take another one off. A game that was over can restart.
What are the exact bearing off rules?
You bear off a checker from the point matching the number you rolled. A five takes a checker off the five point, a two off the two point. From there, two cases cover everything else.
If the matching point is empty and you have checkers on HIGHER points. you may not bear off with that number. You must play it as a move inside the home board instead. Rolling a five with the five point empty but checkers on the six means moving one from the six to the one.
If the matching point is empty and there is nothing higher. you bear off from the highest occupied point. Rolling a six with your back checkers on the four means a checker comes off the four point.
Doubles work as they always do: four numbers, so up to four checkers off in one turn. And you are never forced to bear off when a legal move exists instead, which is the whole basis of playing a safe bear-off against contact.
What happens if I get hit while bearing off?
The checker goes to the bar, re-enters in the opponent's home board, and has to run the full length of the board again. Everything you had taken off stays off, but you cannot bear off another checker until all fifteen remaining ones are home.
This is why the phrase used at the table is that you are never safe until the last checker is off. If your opponent still holds an anchor in your home board, you are in a contact bear-off and the shape of your position matters far more than speed.
How do I avoid wasting pips?
Wastage is what happens when a roll takes a checker off a low point that a smaller number could have handled. Bearing a checker off the one point with a six spends five pips for nothing, and in a close race those pips are the game.
- Keep the position even. Filling gaps and avoiding tall stacks on the low points means fewer rolls are forced to overkill.
- Clear from the back. Taking checkers from the higher points first keeps your options open and avoids ending with a lone checker on the six.
- Do not create gaps you will have to jump. An empty point with checkers behind it turns future rolls into moves rather than bear-offs.
- Count before you commit. In a pure race, the pip count tells you whether you are playing for a win or playing to save a gammon, and those need different bear-offs.
What is the safest way to bear off against contact?
Differently from a pure race, and this is the distinction that costs beginners the most. When the opponent holds an anchor, your goal stops being speed and becomes never leaving a blot. Clear your points from the rear, keep an even number of checkers on the points the opponent is watching, and take the slower play that leaves nothing exposed.
The uncomfortable version of that advice is that you should sometimes decline to bear a checker off at all, playing a quiet move inside the home board instead, because taking one off would break a point and hand over a shot. Losing three pips is cheaper than losing the game.
Does bearing off decide gammons?
It decides whether one happens. If your opponent has not borne off a single checker when you finish, the game counts double as a gammon, and if they still have a checker in your home board or on the bar it counts triple as a backgammon. Those multipliers make the bear-off worth playing carefully even from a hopeless position.
So the losing player's job in the last phase is real: get one checker off, and the loss is halved. Our note on how scoring really works goes through what that is worth alongside the cube, and it is worth more than most players assume. The door at orion.arthea.ai/go carries the App Store and Google Play links and always shows what is available right now.