How to play Chinese Checkers

A race across a star-shaped board, capped at four players to keep it fair and fast.

Setup

A star of 121 holes. Each player has 10 marbles in one triangle; with two players the triangles face each other.

On your turn

• Move one marble to an adjacent empty hole, or hop over any adjacent marble into the empty hole beyond.
• Hops can be chained in one turn, over anyone's marbles.

Special rules

• A hard move limit stops stalling: at the limit, the most progress toward the goal wins. Back-and-forth repetition is blocked.

Winning, draws and losing

• The first player to fill the opposite triangle wins the pot.

Online rules and fair play

• Hop paths are highlighted. Repeated pairings and teaming-up patterns are flagged.
• Every game runs on a server clock: running out of time loses.
• A disconnected player has 60 seconds to return before forfeiting.