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Backgammon: Bearing Off

Bearing off is how you actually win a game of backgammon. Once all 15 of your checkers are in your home board, you start removing them from the board entirely. First player to clear all 15 wins. The rules are straightforward, but this is the phase where sloppy play gives back games that were already won. The good news: a little care goes a long way here.

What is Bearing Off in Backgammon?

Bearing off is the final phase of the game. You can only begin once all 15 of your checkers are on points 1 through 6 (your home board). Not 14. All 15. If you have even a single checker anywhere else on the board, including on the bar, it has to get back to your home board before you can bear anything off.

Getting to this stage first is a big advantage, but mistakes here - leaving a blot, wasting pips, misjudging the opponent's threats - can hand that advantage right back.

How to Bear Off: Rules and Mechanics

On each turn, you use your dice rolls to remove checkers from the board:

Exact match: roll a 4, and you can bear off a checker from the 4-point.

Roll higher than your highest occupied point: if you roll a 6 but your highest checker is on the 4-point, you bear off from the 4-point. The extra pips are not wasted here - you just take the highest checker off.

No checker on the rolled point but higher points still occupied: you have to move a checker forward within the home board instead. You can't bear off from a lower point when higher ones still have checkers on them.

Doubles give you four moves as usual. Roll double 5s and you can remove up to four checkers from the 5-point (or make four legal moves within the home board).

One rule that catches people off guard: you're not required to bear off if you have a legal move within the home board instead. Sometimes moving a checker forward is the safer play, especially when bearing off would leave a blot exposed.

Basic Bearing Off Strategy

Efficiency

Every pip that doesn't remove a checker is a wasted pip. Picture this: you roll a 6 but your highest checker is on the 2-point. You take it off, but 4 pips just vanished for nothing. Spreading your checkers across your home board before bearing off begins reduces this waste and helps you clear the board faster.

The ideal setup has checkers spread evenly across all six points. Heavy stacks on one or two points lead to big rolls being partially wasted.

Avoiding Blots and Hits

If your opponent still has checkers nearby - in your home board, on the bar, or holding an anchor - leaving a blot during bearing off is dangerous. A hit sends your checker all the way back to the bar, and it has to travel the entire board to get home before you can resume bearing off. That can easily cost you the game.

When the opponent has contact:

• Bear off from the highest occupied points first to clear them.
• Avoid leaving gaps between your remaining checkers that would expose a blot.
• If you have to choose between bearing off a checker and moving one to safety, safety often wins.

The doubling cube adds pressure during bearing off. If you're bearing off smoothly with no contact, you're in a strong position to double (or redouble). If the opponent holds an anchor in your home board, they have cube leverage because a single hit can reverse the game.

Winning a Gammon or Backgammon

If you bear off all 15 checkers and your opponent hasn't removed any, that's a gammon (worth 2x the stake). If they also have a checker stuck in your home board or on the bar, it's a backgammon (worth 3x the stake).

A player who is in danger of being gammoned will fight hard to bear off at least one checker, because the difference between a single loss and a gammon loss is huge. In match play, this distinction can decide the entire match.