Bearing off with a double roll

Stack · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 24

I’m new to the game of backgammon and still trying to figure it all out.
What I want to know is what to do if I roll a double when I am bearing off. Do I double the roll when I am bearing off too? Can I take four checkers off or just two?
Also, what if I roll a double and there are no checkers on the point that I roll?

DeadCube · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 18

If you roll a double when you are bearing off, you still count the roll twice. So yes, you could potentially remove four checkers, depending on the situation.

If you were to roll a double and you didn’t have any checkers on that point there are a couple scenarios you could deal with:

The first is that you have checkers on higher numbers that you can move closer to the one point. If this is the case, you move all of your high checkers down and then you can start bearing off. Lets say you rolled double 2s and you have one checker on the three and two on the four. In this situation, you can move the two checkers from the four point to the two (this accounts for 2 moves) and then you can bear those checkers off of the 2 point (this accounts for the other 2 moves). You may also move the checker from the three point to the one point if the urge strikes you, but by moving both checkers from the 4 point allows you to bear of two checkers, rather than one.

The second scenario is that you roll doubles and you have no checkers on the point you have rolled or on any higher points. In this case, you remove four checkers from the highest points that have checkers on them. For example, if you roll a double six and only have two checkers on the three point and two on the one point you can bear off all your checkers.

I hope this helps!