about bearing off

ellyssian · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 18

The other day I was involved in a backgammon match that I was about to win. I had two checkers on my 2-point and one on my 4-point. The rest of my checkers were already borne off and my opponent had a blot on my 1-point. I rolled a 4-1. I wanted to move the checker from my 4-point to the 3-point and then bear it off from the 3-point so that I could avoid leaving an open checker and maintain the made point on my 2-point. However, my opponent informed me that this move was illegal (because you must move the maximum number of points during bearoff) and that I had to bear the checker off of the 4-point and then move one of my checkers from the 2-point to hit his checker on the 1-point. This left my two remaining checkers open and gave him the opportunity to roll a 2-2, allowing him not only to advance his checker substantially but also to hit my checker to the bar. He had built a 6-point prime in his home board so I was trapped on the bar until he was able to get his remaining checkers home and start bearing off. He won the game. Was this fair?

Catalin · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 24

Your opponent was incorrect in his statement that you must move the maximum number of points during bear off so basically he stole the game from you, which is definitely not fair. During bear off you may move however you want. The only time that you have to move the larger number of points is if you can play either of the two dice but not both. In this case you must move the larger number.

From my experience, never trust your opponent to tell you the rules of the game—especially if you are about to win. If you had been in a tournament situation then you could have called the tournament director to ask him about the rules. However, if you are playing in a more casual setting it is a little more difficult to deal with a situation like this. If there is a third party that you can ask, I would always recommend doing so. Other than that, just try to read up on the rules so that you can be as rule-savvy as possible and prevent your opponents from pulling something like this on you in the future.