Chinese Checkers – Play Online for Free

Despite its name, Chinese Checkers has nothing to do with China. It began as Halma, which the Boston surgeon George Howard Monks invented around 1883 or 1884 on a square board of 16 by 16 squares for two or four players. The name comes from the Greek word hálma, "jump," and in 1888 Monks received an American patent for his "Game of Skill." Around 1890 the game reached Germany, and in December 1891 Otto Maier of Ravensburg published an edition there. The six-pointed star board is a German development called Stern-Halma; who invented it is unknown, and the often quoted year 1892 is not documented.

In the United States the Pressman company began selling the star version in 1928 and gave it the exotic name Chinese Checkers, which stuck for good. Mathematicians have also shown that a two-player game takes at least 30 moves. Our Chinese Checkers uses the star board with 121 holes: you can play Chinese Checkers for free with up to three computer rivals, and you need neither an account nor a download to play online.

Hop, Don't Capture: Rules and Tips for Chinese Checkers

Play takes place on the star board with 121 holes, a hexagon in the middle and six points of ten holes each. Everyone starts with ten pieces in their point and wants to bring all of them into the point opposite. With two players you sit face to face, with three each player starts in every other point, and with four two pairs cross the board while two points stay empty.

• A move: either you step a piece into a free neighboring hole, or you jump. You cannot mix the two in one move, and only one piece moves at a time.
• Jumping: a piece jumps over a directly adjacent piece of any color into the free hole right behind it. From there it may keep jumping, in any direction, as often as it can, and you may stop after any jump. Nothing is captured; the pieces you jump over stay where they are.
• Other points: you may jump through points that are neither your start nor your goal, but a move may not end there.
• You must move: if you have a move, you have to make it. Only a player with no move at all sits out.
• A blocked goal: if an opponent's piece stays behind in its start point, which is also your goal, your goal still counts as reached once every hole in it is filled and at least one of the pieces is yours. Blocking that way only hurts the blocker.
• The end: whoever first gets all ten pieces into the goal wins, and the game ends at once. The other places go by how many pieces each player already has there and how far the rest still have to go.

A click on one of your pieces lifts it, and rings mark every hole it can reach this move. A click on a ring sends it there along the shortest path of jumps; you can also drag it straight to its spot. A faint ring shows where each player last moved a piece from. The number buttons let you choose two, three or four players, the first game is played by two, and the first move is always yours. Large screens also offer a palette for choosing the color of your pieces. Here is how to reach the goal faster:

• Build ladders: the longest moves are long chains of jumps. Leave a hole free between your pieces now and then, so a piece from the back can hop over several at once and leap forward.
• Think two moves ahead: a quiet move that sets up a long chain for next turn is often worth more than the longest single jump.
• Use other pieces as rungs: you may jump over opponents' pieces too. An opponent in the middle of the board is often the best stepping stone for your next long leap.
• Build no bridges for others: if one of your pieces stands where an opponent can hop over it far forward, you are helping them. Watch which gaps you open behind you.
• Bring the stragglers along: a single piece left behind costs many small steps at the end, because nobody is around to jump from. Fetch it in time.
• Fill the goal from the tip: move your first pieces all the way to the back of the point, so the later ones have room and do not have to wait in front of it.

One More Game on the Board? Five Classics for Jumping, Moving and Rolling

If you enjoy planning, hopping and overtaking your opponent, here are more board games:

• Checkers: jumping matters here too, but with consequences: a piece you jump over is captured and leaves the board.
• Ludo: again a race home for up to four players, but the die sets the pace, and an opponent landing on you sends you back to the start.
• Backgammon: the first to bear all their checkers off the board wins. Along the way, clever moves decide how much the luck of the dice is worth.
• Chess: six kinds of pieces, each with its own way of moving, and in the end all that matters is who checkmates the opposing king.
• Nine Men's Morris: first you place your men, then you move them. Three in a row take one of your opponent's men, and with only three left you may fly.