Question about bearing off in backgammon

LippedCup · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 9

I’m new to backgammon and I’m still trying to get a handle on all of the rules. I understand that the object of the game is to move all of your checkers around the board and bear them off faster than your opponent. However, I am a bit unclear on what you are supposed to do in certain situations in the bearoff. What happens if you roll a number and you have no checkers on the corresponding point? Do you forfeit your turn?

leonardo · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 17

If you roll a number with no checkers on it while you are bearing off you don’t forfeit your turn. When this occurs your have two options. First, if you have checkers on higher points then you may move them down to lower points. For example, if you roll a 3-2 and have checkers only on 1, 2 and 5 then you may move the 5 three points to the 2-point and bear a checker off the 2-point. If you roll a number and that point doesn’t have a checker on it and neither do any of the higher points then you may bear a checker off of the highest point that does have a checker on it. For instance, if you roll a 3 and you only have checkers on your 1-point and 2-point then you would bear a checker off the 2-point because it is the highest point that has checkers remaining on it. Hope this helps!