How to play Chinese Checkers

The rules take about two minutes to learn and the first game teaches you the rest. Here is everything you need before your opening move.

Step 1 — Set up the star

The board is a six-pointed star made of holes. Each player takes one arm and fills it with ten pieces. The arm directly opposite yours is your goal: that is where all ten have to end up.

Two players face each other across the board, top against bottom. Three players take alternating arms so everyone has an empty arm between them. Four play as two facing pairs, five leave one arm empty, and six fill the star. Playing online, this is chosen for you when the game is created.

Step 2 — Move one piece per turn

On your turn you move a single piece. The simplest move is one step into a neighbouring empty hole. The grid runs in six directions, not four, so from the middle of the board a piece has six neighbours.

Stepping is slow. It is what you do when nothing better is available, and in a good game that is rare.

Step 3 — Jump to cover ground

Instead of stepping, you can jump over a piece and land in the empty hole beyond it. Two things surprise people here:

• You may jump your own pieces, not just your opponents'. Most good moves jump your own.
• Nothing is captured. Unlike draughts, a jumped piece stays exactly where it is. No one ever loses material, so the whole game is a race, never a fight.

Step 4 — Use super-jumps and chains

This is where the Super variant departs from the classic game, and it is the thing worth practising.

One restriction: you may jump through another player's arm, but your move cannot end there. Every move has to finish in the middle of the board, your own arm, or your goal arm.

Step 5 — Fill the opposite arm to win

Get all ten pieces into the arm opposite your start and you win. Two rules smooth out the ending. The first time each piece enters your goal arm you earn an extra move, which you may spend on any piece. And everyone gets the same number of turns: if you finish first, a player one turn behind still gets a final turn to equalise, and if they get home on it you share the win.

Five tips for your first game

1. Build a ladder, do not just advance. Pieces spaced evenly ahead of each other are jump platforms. A tidy line of your own pieces is worth more than a piece two holes further forward.
2. Empty your back row early. The pieces at the far tip of your arm have the longest journey and the fewest options. Leaving them until the end is the classic way to lose a won game.
3. Use the opponent's pieces. They are platforms too, and an opponent advancing down the middle is doing you a favour.
4. Look for the long jump before the short one. Beginners see adjacent hops and miss the piece four holes away with a clear path. Scan the whole line before committing.
5. Watch what your move leaves behind. Vacating a hole can open a chain for the player behind you. Late in the game, this decides races.

Keep going

The full rule reference has every rule in order for when you need to check one mid-game, and Super Chinese Checkers explains how the variant differs from the classic game in more depth.