Chinese Checkers Rules
Chinese Checkers is a race across a six-point star board, not a capture game — despite the name, it isn't Chinese and it isn't really checkers. It's Halma's star-shaped German descendant, Stern-Halma. Here's how to play, including the one house rule we use to stop a stalling tactic the classic game allows.
Play Chinese Checkers free →What the Game Actually Is
Chinese Checkers is Stern-Halma, a German commercial game first published around 1892, a star-board descendant of the older race game Halma (1883/84). The game reached the US market in 1928 under the name "Hop Ching Checkers" — that's where the "Chinese" label comes from, not from any Chinese playing tradition. Nothing is ever captured, so by the usual definition it isn't checkers at all; it belongs to the Halma family of racing games. See the full history in our post on the name.
The Board and Setup
The board is a six-point star with 121 holes: a hexagon in the middle surrounded by six 10-hole triangular points. Classic Chinese Checkers seats 2 to 6 players, one at each point they choose to fill. This site's version is 2-player: you and your opponent (the AI, or a friend in hot-seat) sit at opposite points, 10 marbles each. White sits at the bottom of the star and moves first; against the AI you can choose either side.
How to Move
- Step — move a marble to any adjacent empty hole (up to 6 directions).
- Jump chain — hop a marble over exactly one adjacent marble, yours or your opponent's, into the empty hole directly beyond it. You can keep chaining from the landing hole, hopping over more marbles each time, and you may stop the chain after any hop. A chain never revisits a hole it already landed on.
- Steps and jump chains cannot mix in a single move — pick one or the other for your turn.
For example, if your marble has three other marbles lined up beside it with empty holes beyond each one, you could hop the first, then the second, then the third — three jumps in one turn — or stop after just the first or second hop if that lands you somewhere better. This kind of multi-jump turn is called a hop chain.
No Captures
This is the rule that separates Chinese Checkers from every game in the actual checkers family: jumping over a marble does nothing to it. It stays exactly where it was, whether it's yours or your opponent's. There's no capturing, no promotion, no kings, and no forced moves — you're always free to choose any legal step or jump chain.
How to Win
The classic win: be the first player to move all 10 of your marbles into the star point directly opposite your starting one.
Our anti-stalling rule. The classic rule has a hole in it: a player can leave one marble sitting in their own starting triangle forever, which permanently blocks the opponent from ever filling that same triangle as their goal — since that hole never opens up. On this site, you win as soon as every hole in your goal triangle is occupied and at least one of those marbles is yours. An opponent's marble squatting in your goal counts as filled, not as a block. The "at least one of yours" part matters too: at the very start of the game your goal triangle is already full of your opponent's starting marbles, and without that guard you'd win instantly by doing nothing. With it, a player who camps at home just loses once you fill the one hole they left open. When nobody is squatting, this rule reduces to the classic win exactly — you still need to actually get your own marbles across the board.
Strategy Basics
- Build jump chains rather than single steps — a marble that can hop three or four times in one turn covers far more ground than one moving hole by hole.
- You can hop over your own marbles to build "ladders" that carry other marbles across the board fast — set up a line of your own pieces early to use later.
- Don't leave marbles stranded at the back. A single straggler can cost you the game even after the rest of your marbles reach the goal, since every hole in your goal triangle needs to be filled.
Our Version's Specifics
This build is 2-player only — human vs. AI, or two players taking turns on one device (hot-seat). Choose easy, medium, or hard difficulty against the AI. Undo, hints, resume-in-progress, and per-difficulty win/loss stats work the same way they do across the rest of the site.
Want the full history behind the name? Read why Chinese Checkers isn't Chinese, or see how it compares to the real checkers family in our guide to checkers variants.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Chinese Checkers actually Chinese?
No. It's Stern-Halma, a German commercial game from 1892 built on the older race game Halma. The US "Hop Ching Checkers" boom in 1928 is where the "Chinese" name got attached.
Is it really checkers?
No. Nothing is ever captured, so it doesn't belong to the checkers family at all — it's a member of the Halma family of racing games.
Can you jump your own marbles?
Yes, and your opponent's too — jumps in Chinese Checkers never capture anything, so whose marble you hop over doesn't matter.
How do you stop someone blocking the goal?
Our site rule: you win once every hole in your goal triangle is full, even if one of those marbles belongs to your opponent. A player who parks a marble at home to stall simply loses.
How many players?
The classic game supports 2 to 6 players. This site's version is 2-player: you against the AI, or two people in hot-seat.
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