You have a choice: bring your last checker out of danger, or keep it back for a chance to hit. Before deciding, it helps to know whether you would welcome a straight race.
The pip count adds up the distance all your checkers still have to travel before they are off the board. A lower count means less distance to cover; at the start of a standard game, you and your opponent each have 167.
Why 167?
A checker on your 6-point has six steps left to bear off. Five checkers there contribute 30 pips. Do the same for the four starting groups:
2 × 24 + 5 × 13 + 3 × 8 + 5 × 6 = 167
Where 167 comes from
48 + 65 + 24 + 30 = 167 pips
Ivory moves toward 1. Red moves the other way: the point marked 24 is Red’s own 1. Compare each side using its own distance to the exit.
Read the position
Ivory, point: number of checkers. 6: 5, 8: 3, 13: 5, 24: 2. Red: 1: 2, 12: 5, 17: 3, 19: 5. On the bar: Ivory 0, Red 0. Borne off: Ivory 0, Red 0.
That is all a pip count is: each checker’s remaining distance, added together. A checker on the bar counts as 25, while one already borne off counts as zero.
The numbering needs a little care. Each player counts toward their own exit. If Ivory is on its 6-point and Red is on its own 6-point, both checkers contribute six, even though they sit on opposite sides of the board.
Count the difference first
Over a real board, the useful question is often “who is ahead, and by roughly how much?” You can answer that without finding two complete totals.
Suppose each side has five checkers on its own 6-point. Those two groups contribute the same amount, so set them aside mentally. You can mentally cancel any other matching groups and only count what differs.
If the remaining five ivory checkers are on their 5-point and the five red checkers are on their 6-point, each ivory checker is one step nearer home. Ivory leads by five pips, which you can see without separately calculating 25 and 30.
Small shapes help with a full count too. One checker on your 4 and one on your 6 have the same total distance as two on your 5: ten pips. One checker on each of your 4, 5 and 6 totals fifteen. Picture a group gathered around its middle point.
With practice, you start noticing these shapes while your opponent is moving. The aim is to make a useful comparison without losing track of the game.
What does a racing lead change?
If you are ahead, getting your last checkers past the opponent can be attractive. Once contact is gone, they cannot hit you and send you back. Your opponent will have to make up the distance with the dice.
If you are behind, keeping an anchor or a chance to hit may be part of your way back. Giving up contact can leave you hoping for unusually good dice. Our guide to the main game plans explains how racing and holding positions call for different choices.
But a pip lead measures distance alone. You can be ahead with a checker trapped behind a prime. In a bear-off, a badly arranged stack can waste large dice. Two positions with equal counts can therefore have very different winning chances. The same dice can do more work in one position than another.
Check whose turn it is, too: a small lead before the opponent rolls differs from the same lead before your own roll, because the player on turn has the first opportunity to reduce their count.
Try reading the lead
Start with the matching groups. Remember that Red’s point numbers run the other way. In one example you will meet a checker on the bar: include its full 25 pips.
Who has less distance left?
Six positions. Pick the side ahead in the race, and estimate the lead if you like. Take your time.
Position 1 of 6
Ivory moves toward 1. Red moves the other way: the point marked 24 is Red’s own 1. Compare each side using its own distance to the exit.
Compare the distance remaining, not who looks more likely to win.
Read the position
Ivory, point: number of checkers. 1: 2, 3: 3, 4: 5, 5: 5. Red: 19: 5, 21: 5, 22: 3, 24: 2. On the bar: Ivory 0, Red 0. Borne off: Ivory 0, Red 0.
Show the count and a shortcut
Ivory: 56 pips. Red: 61 pips. Ivory leads the race by 5 pips.
Each side has two on its own 1, three on its 3 and five on its 4. Those groups cancel. The remaining five ivory checkers are one point nearer home: a lead of 5 pips.
Can you just subtract the dice from 167?
Sometimes that works for a few turns. If you use a 6–3 in full, your count normally drops by nine. But a hit sends a checker backwards, a blocked die may go unused, and an oversized bear-off die removes only the distance the checker actually had left. Doubles give four moves when you can play them.
So 167 is a starting reference, not a running total you can maintain by subtracting every roll you see. Read the current board, check the important groups, and use the app’s displayed count to see how close you were.
If you would like to know how a coach goes from facts like this to a recommended move, we explain what happens inside the engine.
The starting count and grouping methods are established backgammon knowledge. For a fuller introduction to racing, see Chris Bray’s Backgammon Races. The positions, comparisons and practice here were created for CUBE Backgammon, using the app’s Las Vegas board. The exercise counts distance exactly; it does not evaluate winning chances or recommend moves.