Winning the bearoff race

Helerike · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 10

I always loose the bearoff race! Is there any sort of strategy, techniques or guidelines that could help me improve my bearing off? Even if I get to my home board first and am way ahead in the pip count I still seem to be losing and I don’t understand it. Someone please help me. Please!

Catalin · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 24

Well I haven’t seen your game, so it’s hard for me to tell you exactly what you are doing wrong. One common mistake is leaving gaps in your home board. You have to keep your home board organized. Keep your checkers spread out as much as possible in order to make sure that no matter what you roll you will always have something to bear off. Also, try not to leave gaps. Leaving empty three and four points with checkers on five and six can be detrimental. If you roll a three or four you will have no options for bearing off checkers at all in this situation. You always want to maximize your chances of a good roll by arranging your home board effectively. Also, if you ever have the opportunity to bear off two checkers, do it! Don’t give up the chance of bearing a checker of the 2-point in order to move a checker from 6-4. It’s not worth it. You want to bear off checkers as quickly as you can if you want to win the race. Aside from this advice, it’s probably a good idea for you to pay attention to what your opponents are doing to beat you—success is in technique more than dice.