How to play Chinese Checkers

Chinese Checkers is a race across a six-pointed star. Each player starts with ten pegs packed into one point of the star, and the first to move all ten into the opposite point wins. Nobody is ever captured: pegs simply hop over each other, and a single move can carry a peg from one side of the board to the other along a chain of hops.

Despite the name, the game is neither Chinese nor a kind of checkers; it was invented in Germany in the 1890s as a version of the older game Halma and given its catchy name in America. It plays equally well with two players, where it is a pure race, and with a full table of six, where the centre of the board becomes a crowded crossroads.

How to play on skill.games

In the settings popup choose a difficulty (Easy, Normal, Hard or Crazy) and how many computers to play against (1, 2 or 5), then press PLAY. Your pegs are red and start in the bottom point; your target is the top point, which pulses with a red rim. You always move first, then the computers take their turns clockwise. Every computer plays at the difficulty you chose.

• Moving: tap one of your pegs. It lifts, and every hole it can reach is marked: grey dots for single steps, blue dots for holes reached by hopping. Tap a dot to move there, or drag the peg to it.
• Hop chains: a peg travels hop by hop, so you can follow its route. The last move made is shown as a dashed path.
• Changing your mind: tap another of your pegs to lift it instead. A tap on a hole the peg can't reach is refused with a shake.
• Score line: the top of the screen shows how many of your pegs are home and, against several computers, the best computer's count. The status line turns the colour of the computer that is thinking.

The menu button in the top-left corner pauses the game and lets you resume, start a new game or switch the sound on or off. The game is saved at every turn, so an unfinished game can be picked up later with CONTINUE.

At the end the results screen shows your pegs home against the best computer's, how many moves you made and how many computers you played, with your statistics for that number of computers and that difficulty.

Rules

• The board is a star of 121 holes. Each player has ten pegs in one point of the star, a triangle of ten holes.
• With one computer the two of you start in opposite points. With two computers three points are used, every other one, so each of you races into an empty point. With five computers every point is in play and every target starts full of another player's pegs.
• Players take turns. A move is either a step or a hop, never both:
• a step moves a peg to any of the six neighbouring holes, if it is empty;
• a hop jumps over one neighbouring peg (anyone's) in a straight line to the empty hole right behind it. Hops can be chained in one move, changing direction as you like, and you may stop after any of them.
• Nothing is captured; hopped pegs stay where they are. Pegs may pass through, and stop in, any hole of the board, including other players' points.
• The first player with all ten pegs in the opposite point wins. On skill.games the game ends there: you win if you are first home, and lose if any computer gets home before you.
• No blocking: from the 30th round on, a player has also finished when their target point is full, at least one hole holds one of their own pegs, and every other peg in it belongs to the player who started there and has never left. A player can't keep you out by leaving pegs at home.

Strategy tips

• Hop, don't walk. A step gains one row; a good chain of hops can gain eight or more. Before each move, look for the longest chain any of your pegs can make.
• Build a ladder. Pegs spaced one hole apart in a line make a ladder that the pegs behind can hop along. Keep your pegs close together so they can use each other.
• Mind who else can use it. Opponents can hop over your pegs too. A ladder pointing at the middle of the board is a gift to anyone travelling the same way.
• Stay near the centre line. Pegs that drift to the edges of the star have fewer pegs around them to hop over and take longer to bring home.
• Bring the last peg home. The game is decided by your slowest peg. A peg left behind in your starting point can cost five or six extra moves at the end.
• Fill the target from the tip. Move the first pegs that arrive deep into the point, leaving the front holes free for the rest.
• In a full game, mind the crossroads. With six players the centre gets crowded. That means many pegs to hop over, but also traffic jams; look for routes along the less busy side.

Difficulty levels

• Easy: makes a random forward move about a third of the time; otherwise it takes the move that gains the most distance right now.
• Normal: always takes the best single move, aiming its pegs at the free holes of its target and bringing up its stragglers, but it never plans ahead.
• Hard: plans two moves of its own at a time, so it sets up hops for its next turn.
• Crazy: plans its next two moves while expecting the next player's best reply, and it weighs how its move helps or hinders that player. It is the quickest at bringing its pegs home.

Modes

• Computers: 1 (a straight race between opposite points), 2 (three points in play) or 5 (the full star). Each keeps its own statistics. Against several computers you must beat all of them home.