I was losing this game of backgammon badly, then I came back to win it, with white leaving five pieces on the board.
How badly was I losing? At one point, I had five pieces pinned in white’s home quadrant, white offered a double or resign (and I did not resign), and white had already started to remove its pieces from the board. But white removing pieces also unpinned mine, while I was able to stack my own home quadrant.
Then, a lucky break! White left a piece unprotected (ie., there’s only one piece stacked in a space), and I was able to take that off the board, and for a number of moves white, because I’d stacked my home quadrant, was unable to return it to the board, allowing me to move my pieces toward my home.
White did escape while I was bringing my pieces around, and I was able to take white back off the board to start again in the lower left quadrant.
White would eventually get that piece back to its home quadrant, but by that point it was too late. I had only three more pieces to remove.
So, after being oh so close to losing, I came back to win, and white was left with five pieces on the board.
I still lose three out of four games of backgammon I play, but considering I never played before about a month ago, it’s getting better all the time.