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Bearing off

The last phase of the game, and the one with the fiddliest rules.

You may begin bearing off once all fifteen of your checkers are in your home board — your 1-point through 6-point. Bearing off means removing a checker from the board entirely. The first player to remove all fifteen wins.

The rules, exactly

1. A die matching an occupied point bears a checker off that point. A 4 takes a checker off the 4-point.
2. If the matching point is empty and you have checkers on higher points, you must make a legal move inside your home board instead. You may not bear off.
3. If the matching point is empty and there are no checkers on any higher point, you may bear off from the highest occupied point below it.
4. If a checker is hit, it goes to the bar and you may not bear off again until it has travelled all the way home.

The mistakes that cost games

Leaving a gap

An empty point with checkers still above it means future rolls of that number cannot bear off and must be wasted moving inside the board. Filling gaps as you go is usually worth more than taking an extra checker off.

Stacking the low points

Piling checkers on the 1-point and 2-point feels safe but wastes pips — a 6 bearing off from the 1-point throws away five pips of movement. Spread across the higher points, every roll does full work.

Ignoring the contact still on the board

If your opponent still has a checker in or near your home board, safety beats speed. Bearing off in a way that leaves a blot can lose a game you had already won.