Bearing Off in Backgammon

Bear off – The deciding factor as to whether you win or lose in a particular game.

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Whoever bears off all his checkers first wins the game.

When and how to start bearing off?

Note that ‘Bear off’ means simply to bear the checkers off the board. The primary condition for bear off is to bring all the checkers to your home board. Once you accomplish the task of bringing all your checkers to your home, roll the dice and watch the number shown by the throw. You must bear off your checkers according to the particular number. If the throw shows 4, you are to bear off the checker, which is placed on the 4th point.

What happens, if the roll shows a number which is empty?

I.e., if there is no checker lying on that particular point. You must make a legal move using a checker which is lying in the higher numbered points. If there is no such checker, then you are to remove a checker from the highest point where your checker is lying. Remember you are not under any compulsion of bear off as long as a legal move is permissible. In such a situation one needs to act intelligently depending upon the progress of the game and your power of reading the situation.

What happens, if a checker is hit or bumped?

You are to go through the same rigmarole as before of placing the checker on the bar followed by placing the same in the furthest point in the outer table, bringing into the home board by legal moves and only then you may restart bear off.
The stipulation is that until all the checkers are brought back to the home board, ‘bear off’ cannot take place. This process should continue until all your checkers have been ‘borne off’.

Whoever completes bears off first wins the game:

The opponent must have at least one checker on the board. The winner wins by the number of opponent’s checkers left on the board in the normal situation, where each checker carries one point. In special case like a double, the point becomes doubled for the winner whereby each checker will carry two points. In the situation of re-double it becomes double of the double.

Two situations to take into consideration:

1. If one player has completed the bear of all his 15 checkers at a stage when the other has not been able to bear off even one of his 15 checkers, then the winner is rewarded gammon, which doubles the points.

2. In the event the situation that one player has been able to accomplish bear off completely, while the other has got his checker or checkers on the bar or in his outer board (essentially being the winner’s home board), the winner is rewarded backgammon which has a triple effect.

In certain rules such as the ‘Jacoby Rule’, Gammon and backgammon do not differ if a double has not been offered.

Computer players need not worry; simply drag the checker where you want it to be placed. If the checker is placed on the bar, it will be automatically positioned.

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