Hop your marbles across the star and into the point opposite. Chains of jumps are where the game lives.
Two to six players, with bots filling whatever seats you do not want.
Click a marble to see its moves, then click where you want it to go. A marble can step to any empty neighbouring hole.
Or it can jump over a single adjacent marble, yours or anyone's, and land in the empty hole directly beyond it.
Jumps chain. One jump can lead into another and another, and a good ladder carries a marble most of the way across the board in one turn.
The first player to fill the point opposite their own with all ten marbles wins.
Yes, and you should. Building a ladder of your own marbles is the fastest way to move a long distance.
No. Nothing is ever taken off the board, which is why the game stays friendly even with six players.
Two is the cleanest race, six is the messiest and most fun. Three and four leave more open board, so chains get longer.
No. It was invented in Germany in 1892 as Stern Halma, and the name was a marketing decision in 1920s America.
Chinese Checkers is a race with no capturing, which makes it unusually pleasant: nothing you do can wreck someone else's game, only get there before them.
The skill is in laying ladders. Leaving a marble behind as a stepping stone for the ones following it beats dragging every marble forward one hop at a time.
Watch the holes you leave behind, too. A trailing marble with nothing to jump can take a dozen turns to bring home.