Chinese Checkers

Hop in chains across the star and be the first to arrive.

Halma on a six-pointed star: bring your ten marbles across to the opposite point by chaining hops, with two to six players.

Players: 2 to 6 players
Length: 15 min

Against the AI
Online with friends

Play Chinese Checkers

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How to play

Object of the game

Each player has ten marbles lined up in one point of the star. The first to bring all of their marbles into the opposite point wins the game.

Movement

On your turn, move one marble to an adjacent free hole, or hop it over a neighbouring marble (yours or an opponent’s) into the free hole just behind it, in a straight line.
Hops can be chained: the same marble may hop as many times as possible, in any direction, and stop wherever you like along the way. You never combine a simple step with a hop.
Marbles that are hopped over are not captured: nothing ever leaves the board.
A marble may hop across the other players’ points but cannot stop in them: it only comes to rest in the centre, in its starting point or in its destination point.

End of the game

You win as soon as your destination point is completely filled and contains at least one of your marbles: an opposing marble that lingers there therefore cannot block you.
A player who cannot move passes their turn. After 200 turns, the most advanced player wins.

Controls

Tap one of your marbles: its possible destinations light up. Then tap the destination, or drag the marble.
The path of the last move stays traced in dotted lines.
Options: from two to six players (you and the AI), wooden or glass board.

Tip: build “ladders” of marbles spaced one hole apart to set up long chains of hops, and do not forget your stragglers: the game is often won on the last marble.

Online

From two to six players, each on their own device. Every move is checked by all players (right player, right turn, legal hops), so nobody can cheat. If there are fewer players than points on the star (for example five players on a six-point star), the host’s AI plays the free seats. The starting player is drawn at random.

About the AI

The AI evaluates the remaining distance of each marble to its target point, penalises marbles stranded on the sides and stragglers, and rewards hops that set up long chains. At the Expert and Master levels, it uses a “best reply” search (Best-Reply Search): on each turn, it considers the best response of all its opponents combined, with alpha-beta pruning, iterative deepening and a transposition table. The Master level thus explores several full turns ahead. The lower levels settle for a shorter horizon and deliberately make inaccuracies.

AI levels

BeginnerPlays good moves at random and often misses long chains.
AmateurLooks for the biggest immediate hop, without thinking ahead.
IntermediateAnticipates a full round and its opponents.
ExpertSearches over several turns: prepared hops and ladders.
MasterDeep “best reply” search: formidable.