The Backgammon Bear-off

In this guide, we discuss the backgammon bear-off stage, which is when players take checkers out of the board and remove them into the bar. First we will examine some backgammon bear-off examples and then move to see some more general rules.

Importance of the backgammon bear-off - Some players think that the bear-off, because it is the final stage of the backgammon game, is less important, as the game is almost finished. This is totally wrong, and the bear-off has many various strategies you can play, and offers different options of winning. The backgammon bear-off can actually flip the resulting decision of the winner of the game.

If you have only two checkers left in the 3 and 2 points, and it's your turn, you should double, because odds are you'll bear-off these checkers the next roll. Your opponent should accept the double because there is also a chance he will win.

Two versus three bear-off - When you have two checkers against your opponent's three at the bear-off, you should always double, unless the two checkers are on the 6 point.

When your board has three checkers with less that 15 pips, you should double, especially if you have the same pip count.

General Bear-off Strategies

Moving checkers at the Backgammon Bear-off - If you have a choice of either moving your checkers in your homeboard, or bearing off checkers, you should usually choose the second option and bear-off. This is because it saves on later rolls if you get a dice score of 6-6.

Bear-off gaps - When you cannot bear-off because of a gap, you should fill the highest gap available, but not move and create a new gap instead. You should also try and vacate the most occupied points.

A well balanced bear-off - Just before the backgammon bear-off, try and move your checkers to different points in your homeboard. Also, you should stock more checkers at the start of the board, closer than the 6 point. Thus you can build a pyramid that is big at the start of the 1 point and narrow at the 6 point.

Another option is to keep a balanced distribution at the bear-off. This means that every point has the same number of checkers at the bear-off, and no matter what dice you receive, you can bear-off with ease.

Felicity Stone - Technical Writer