Step-by-Step Tutorial
Chinese Checkers is played on a star-shaped board with 121 positions arranged in a six-pointed star.
In a 2-player game, each player starts with 10 marbles filling one triangular point of the star. Player 1 (Red) starts at the top, Player 2 (Gold) starts at the bottom.
The goal is to be the first player to move all 10 of your marbles into the opposite triangle.
On your turn you move one marble. The simplest move is a step: move one marble to an adjacent empty position.
Each position has up to 6 neighbors (hex grid). A step covers exactly one space in any direction.
Steps are useful for short adjustments but are slow for crossing the board.
A marble can hop over an adjacent occupied position (friend or foe) and land on the empty position directly beyond it.
The jumped marble is NOT captured -- it stays on the board. Hops are the key mechanism for crossing the board quickly.
Unlike checkers, pieces are never removed in Chinese Checkers.
After a hop, if the marble can hop again from its new position, it may continue hopping in a chain.
There is no limit to the number of hops in a single turn, as long as each hop is valid (over an occupied position into an empty one). Chain hops allow dramatic leaps across the board.
You may stop a chain hop at any point -- you do not have to take every available hop.
Your goal is to move all 10 marbles into the opposite triangle. In a 2-player game:
- Player 1 (top) must move all marbles into the bottom triangle (rows 13-16).
- Player 2 (bottom) must move all marbles into the top triangle (rows 0-3).
Once a marble enters the goal triangle, it cannot leave. This prevents defensive blocking strategies.
Chinese Checkers supports 2 to 6 players. With more players, additional triangles of the star are used.
Each player's goal is always the triangle directly opposite their starting position. The triangles are assigned evenly around the star.
With 3 players, every other triangle is used. With 6 players, all six points are filled. Turn order goes clockwise around the star.
Effective strategies in Chinese Checkers include:
- Build hopping ladders: Position marbles so they can be used as stepping stones for chain hops, creating fast lanes across the board.
- Move as a group: Advancing marbles together creates more hop opportunities than moving pieces one at a time.
- Use opponent marbles: You can hop over any marble, including your opponent's. Use their pieces as stepping stones.
- Avoid stragglers: A marble left behind with no hop chain to catch up can cost you the game.
The first player to fill every position in the opposite triangle with their marbles wins.
All 10 positions in the goal triangle must be occupied by your marbles. The game ends immediately when this condition is met.
In this position, Player 1 (Red) has moved all 10 marbles into the bottom triangle and wins the game.
Hop over any piece at distance D, landing D on the other side. This enables spectacular chain jumps across the board.
In standard Chinese Checkers, hops are only over adjacent pieces (distance 1). With Long Jump enabled, if a piece is 2 spaces away along a line, you can hop over it and land 2 spaces beyond it.
This dramatically changes the game: chain jumps can cover huge distances in a single turn. Positioning pieces at strategic intervals creates powerful hop lanes that span the entire board.
In this example, the marble at row 4 can long-jump over a piece at row 6 (distance 2), landing at row 8 (distance 2 beyond).
Ready to play Chinese Checkers?