Page "Backgammon" Paragraph 13

When all of a player's checkers are in that player's home board, that player may start removing them ; this is called bearing off.

A roll of 1 may be used to bear off a checker from the 1-point, a 2 from the 2-point, and so on.

A die may not be used to bear off checkers from a lower-numbered point unless there are no checkers on any higher points.

For example if a player rolls a 6 and a 5, but has no checkers on the 6-point, though 2 checkers remain on the 5-point, then the 6 and the 5 must be used to bear off the 2 checkers from the 5-point.

When bearing off, a player may also move a lower die roll before the higher even if that means ' the full value of the higher die ' is not fully utilized.

For example, if a player has exactly 1 checker remaining on the 6-point, and rolls a 6 and a 1, the player may move the 6-point checker 1 place to the 5-point with the lower die roll of 1, and then bear that checker off the 5-point using the die roll of 6 ; this is sometimes useful tactically.