i made this image to illustrate a situation from a live game last weekend.

I am white (light green) and my opponent has just rolled a 4-1 dice. he is bearing off and he moves his pip in the 3-point, one place, to the 2-point and then off. effectively he uses the 1-dice-roll first and then the 4-dice-roll.

i was taught that when bearing off a player must 'maximize his roll'. seeing as in this instance he covered three points with the roll, where he could have covered these same points with the 4 and then moved again, i believe he did not 'maximize his roll' and so this is not legal.

he says he can move the third piece, one place and then off.

who is right?

Your friend is correct. He is only required to play both parts of his roll if possible. He did. He played a legal 1 (4/3) and then a legal 4 from that position (3/off). That's all he has to do.

You're confusing this with another rule, which is that if you can play one part of your roll but not the other, you must play the larger die. So if he rolls 6-5 and can play the 6 or the 5 but not both, then he must play the 6.

it is normally hard to prove whether a particular doubling decision is correct or not.

How is this related to the OP's question?

Kid - interesting; you robbed me of what I wanted to be my first post - I was going to post a nearly identical situation.

I was playing an online 5-point match recently with a highly rated player. It was a challenging, hard-fought match, tied 4-4. In the last game, it looked like he had me beat. We had a very similar position setup to the one you posted - he rolled a 4-1 - and moved 3/off, 2/1, leaving a blot on the one. I rolled a 1, hit him, and went on to win the match.

I was stunned he would make such an enormous blunder. I guess even good players can benefit from continued study of the game.

Robertie i think Kid midiboy has proved that whether a particular doubling decision is correct or not...

You're too cryptic for me -- I still don't know what you're talking about.

Their is nothing mysterious here i just wanna say that Most of the players get confused when "bearing off" in such type of situation decision they take feel they were right but it is opposite