Bear Off Pointers for Beginners

The last stage of a backgammon game is called the bear off. Of course some games will not reach this stage whenever one player offers a double and his opponent passes. There are even times that a game would redouble during the bear off stage of a backgammon game. It is truly important for beginners to know how to execute a bear off correctly and finish the game with a win.

We will discuss a few reminders concerning the bear off stage that all players should keep in mind. Of course every rule will certainly have an exception, and not all of these would apply to every situation during the endgame. The ones we will mention here will most probably apply to a majority of backgammon endgame situations.

The first item in our list would be the distribution of checkers. The ideal distribution of checkers that would maximize whatever result we get on the dice rolls is one that is pretty even on the home board. That may not always be achievable in every bear off situation. This may be due to the random factor in backgammon -- the dice rolls.

In spite of the random results on the dice rolls, there are still some options that are in the hands of every player in the bear off process. One very problem that players have direct control over is stacking. Stacking checkers on the home board significantly affects the bear off process.

If we stack checkers on only a few points in the home board this creates empty points or gaps. Often enough when you have a huge stack of checkers on a single point there would always be another one a few points back.

This can clearly be avoided by carefully selecting where the checkers land when they cross over to the home board. We can also control the distribution by moving the checkers around on the home board to get a pretty even distribution.

Gaps are the result of having huge stacks of checkers on the home board. We waste rolls on the dice when we don't bear off a checker because we are obliged to move a checker to an open space during the bear off process. When we waste a dice roll that gives our opponent additional timing and a chance to leave us far behind.

One good practice for every player is to bear off a checker when they can. No moment, dice roll, or turn should be wasted during the bear off stage of the game.

Just in case luck runs out and you can't bear off, the next best thing a player can do is to fill a gap. But a player must make sure he isn't creating a new gap in the process. And in case a gap can't be avoided the best thing we can do from here is to knock off a few checkers from the tallest stack we managed to build.

Remember, to bear off effectively a player must avoid stacking checkers, don't create gaps, and distribute the checkers evenly on the home board.