The end of the game, and the rules that trip people up.
Once all fifteen of your checkers are home — your 1-point through 6-point — you start taking them off. A 4 takes a checker off the 4-point. Simple enough, until the number you roll doesn't match anything you have.
Two positions below. The second is the one almost everyone gets wrong the first time.
White to play 3 and 1. Take two checkers off.
White to play 6 and 5, with nothing on the 6-point or 5-point. Take two off anyway.
The rule in full: a die matching an occupied point bears off from it. If that point is empty but you still have checkers on higher points, you must move inside the board instead. Only when nothing remains above it may the die bear off from a lower point.
That middle case is the one that costs games. A gap in your home board means future rolls of that number do no work at all — which is why filling gaps usually beats grabbing one extra checker.
Rules stick faster when something is at stake.
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