Chinese Checkers - Gameplay

Gameplay

The aim of the game is simply to enter all one's pieces into the star corner on the opposite side of the board, before opponents do the same. Each player has ten pieces, except in games between two players when 15 are sometimes used. (On bigger star boards, 15 or 21 pieces are used.

In the "hop across", the most popular variation, each player puts his/her own colored pieces on one of the six points or corners of the star and attempts to race them all "home" to the opposite corner. Players take turns moving a single piece, either by moving one step to an adjacent unoccupied space in any direction, or by jumping in one or any number of available consecutive hops over other single pieces. A player may not combine hopping with a single-step move – a move consists of one or the other. There is no capturing, so hopped pieces remain active on the gameboard. Move turns proceed clockwise around the board.

In the diagram, Green might move the topmost piece one space diagonally downward. A hop consists of jumping over a single adjacent piece, either one's own or an opponent's, to the unoccupied space directly beyond in the same line of direction. Red might advance the indicated piece by a chain of three hops in a single move. It is not mandatory to make the maximum number of hops possible. (In some instances a player may choose to stop the jumping sequence part way, in order to impede the opponent's progress, or to align pieces for planned future moves.)