When You Can Start Bearing Off

You may only begin bearing off once all fifteen of your checkers are inside your home board — your 1-point through 6-point. Not one can be left in the outer board, on the bar, or anywhere else. As long as a single checker is still travelling home, you must keep moving it in before you can take any checker off.

If one of your checkers is hit and sent to the bar during the bear-off, you must bring it all the way around and back into your home board before you are allowed to bear off again. That is why leaving a blot near the end can be disastrous.

How Bearing Off Works

Each die lets you remove a checker from the point of the matching number. Roll a 4 and you may bear off a checker sitting on your 4-point; roll a 6 and you take one off the 6-point. A roll of 6-3 bears off one checker from the 6-point and one from the 3-point.

You are never forced to bear off if you would rather move a checker within your home board instead — and that choice matters, because moving down can let you fill gaps and avoid leaving a blot. Doubles, as always, give you four moves: double 5s bear off (or move) four checkers using fives.

The Overshoot Rule

What if you roll a number higher than your highest occupied point? Say your back checkers are gone and your highest are on the 4-point, and you roll a 6. You cannot waste the roll — instead you bear off a checker from the highest point you still occupy. That 6 takes a checker off the 4-point. This is the overshoot rule.

But there is a catch: the overshoot only applies when no checker sits on a higher point. If you roll a 6 and still have a checker on the 6-point, you must use the 6 on that checker. You only "round down" to the next-highest point once the higher points are empty.

Bearing Off Safely When Contacted

If your opponent still holds a point inside your home board — an anchor — bearing off becomes a tightrope walk. Every roll that forces you to move past their anchor risks leaving a blot they can hit, sending you back to the bar. The golden rule: clear your points from the back forward where you can, and prefer plays that leave no checker exposed, even if it costs a little speed.

• Avoid leaving a blot whenever an opponent checker can still hit it.
• Fill gaps so future rolls do not force an exposed checker.
• When uncontested, just race — take checkers off as fast as possible.

Bearing Off Efficiently

In a pure race with no contact, speed is everything and the math is simple: never waste pips. Try not to leave a single checker stranded on a high point that will need its own roll. Spreading checkers so that most rolls bear two off — rather than one off and one wasted move — can save you the turn that wins the race.