Bearing off is when there is no possible contact in backgammon and the game has turned into a race and is in the endgame phase. There are certain rules for bearing off with the optimal rule being that you should optimise your bearing off procedure at all times. Saving gammons and double games is your optimal goal when behind and your optimal goal when in front is to win them. If you have pips in your outer boards then you absolutely must bring these into your inner board as quickly as possible.
Even if you have counters stacked up on the same bars then you number one goal is still to bring in your counters from the outer boards to the inner board to save gammons. One tactic of bearing in is to make full use of what are called “cross overs”. These are taking counters from one part of the board to another.
This process optimises your ability to take counters off the board in the shortest time possible. Also when you move counters from one section of the board to another then this needs to be done as economically as possible. So what this means is that if you have a chip that is only one pip away from being able to move into another quadrant and you through 6-1 then use the one to take it into the next quadrant and not the six. These little tactics will both win and save you points in endgame bear off situations. When you are playing for money then you need to be acutely aware of little nuances like these.
