In play among experienced players there are only a few openings that are commonly seen. Knowledge of openings is very important to playing Chinese Checkers well-similar to chess. Green shows the two most common opening moves in Chinese Checkers Red shows the next two more common moves. A piece cannot jump over two or more pieces in a line, but a piece can jump zig-zag over two or more pieces.Įxcept for the holes along the edges, all (other) holes have six holes around them, corresponding to the direction of the next move or jump. Each jump in a string of multiple jumps must jump only one adjacent piece landing in an empty hole. The player can jump over their own pieces, or over the pieces of any of the other players. The move may consist of moving one piece into the adjacent empty hole, the piece may jump over one adjacent piece into a empty hole, or can make two or more multiple jumps. On a player's turn they must move only one piece. (The roll of a die, coin tosses, youngest, etc.) Play usually follows a clockwise or counter-clockwise order. Players typically agree on the method to determine who plays first, and second. Three (3) players set up occupying every other point.įour (4) players set up with two on one side, across from the other two players. Two (2) players begin at the opposite ends of the star, across from each other. Each player chooses the color of his or her pieces and fills one of the points of the star with his or her pieces as follows: The object of the game is to be the first to get all of your pieces from the point in front of you across the board, and completely into the point on the opposite side.Ģ, 3, 4, or 6 players can play a game. The points are typically different colors, corresponding to the colors of the pieces. Each point forms a triangle with ten (10) holes in four rows 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10. The center of the board forms a hexagon with five holes along each side. The board is the shape of a six point star, with holes for possible moves of the pieces, typically marbles or pegs. I'd like to stress again that despite this being a really solid-sounding explanation, the author is anonymous and there are no sources to back up this claim, so it's not clear whether or not this is true.Īfter a great deal of searching, I did not manage to find a more authoritative source on the subject, so the true origins of why the game is called 'Chinese Checkers' may remain a mystery.The Board and Pieces

The game was given a Chinese name and theme in keeping with the current interest in all things oriental (among them the discovery of King Tut's tomb in 1922 and the 'mah jongg' game that was introduced in 1923) The brothers Bill and Jack Pressman made up the name 'Chinese Checkers' during or shortly after 1928. This was exact the same game as the 1892 Star-Halma. The first Chinese Checkers game to be published in the United States was 'Hop Ching Checkers' in 1928 by J. The only thing that I could find was a history of the game on Pla圜, which despite sounding authoritative is written by an anonymous author who doesn't back its claims (not to mention has a website that looks like a GeoCities page from the 90s) and so the following passage should be taken worth a grain of salt: But there doesn't seem to be any solid information about why the name 'Chinese Checkers' became associated with the game. The game itself was first released in 1892 in Germany as 'Stern-Halma' (literally 'Star-Halma'), indicating that it was a variation of Halma that was played on a star-shaped board.

There seems to be surprisingly little information about the origin of the name 'Chinese Checkers'.

Chinese checkers board