Chinese checkers: play free online and learn the rules

Play Chinese checkers (Sternhalma) online for free against the computer, right in your browser, with no account or download. The game is played on a six-pointed star board of 121 holes, not on dark squares. There is no capturing at all: marbles hop over one another, but a jumped marble stays right where it is.

You play the marbles at the south point of the star; the computer plays the marbles at the north point, directly across the board. Whoever moves all ten marbles into the point opposite their own start wins.

• 1 · Chain jump

  Jump a marble into the empty hole beyond, then keep jumping in the same turn.

• 2 · No captures

  Hopped marbles, yours or theirs, stay on the board.

• 3 · Goal

  Move all 10 marbles to the opposite point to win.

Nobody is removed from the board. You win by relocating your whole army, not by capturing the other side's.

The Chinese checkers board and marbles

The board is a six-pointed star with 121 holes: a hexagon in the middle and a triangular point of ten holes on each of its six sides. Each player's ten marbles start in one point, and the goal is the point directly across the board.

The full board game is for two to six players, each with a color. Checkerso plays the two-player version, so only two opposite points are used: you start at the south point and the computer at the north point. Marbles move in any of the six directions, including backward and sideways, so a marble can go wherever a step or a hop lets it.

How to play Chinese checkers: two ways to move a marble

• Step one hole in any of the six directions onto an empty neighbor.
• Hop over one adjacent marble — yours or the computer's — landing on the empty hole directly beyond it, in a straight line through the two holes.

Chain jumps are one turn

If the hole beyond your landing spot also has a marble you can hop, you may keep going — over marbles in different directions, not just a straight line — all inside the same turn.

You choose how far the chain runs. Tapping the first empty hole after one hop ends your turn there; tapping a hole three hops away plays the whole chain at once. Nothing forces you to keep jumping.

One house rule: no backing out of home

Once a marble reaches the point opposite your start, it may only move to another hole inside that same point — it cannot step or jump back out. This keeps a finished game from being reopened by a stray retreat, and is the only movement restriction on this board beyond the six-direction hop rule above.

Bring up the marbles left behind

A marble stuck at the back is the one that costs you the race. Move stragglers forward before the others get far ahead of them, so every marble can be part of a chain.

Use the other side's marbles too

You may hop over any marble, yours or the computer's. A line of the computer's marbles is a ladder for you as well.

Build a hopping ladder

A short line of your own marbles lets a single piece chain several hops down the board in one turn — often faster than three separate single-step moves.

Don't block your own lane

A marble sitting where a chain jump would land stops the chain cold. Leave the hole beyond a hop empty until the piece that needs it arrives.

Race, don't fight

There is nothing to capture, so a marble stuck defending accomplishes nothing. Every move should move a piece closer to the opposite point.

Compared with the draughts games on Checkerso

American checkers, Pool checkers, and International checkers are all capturing games on a dark-square grid. Chinese checkers shares none of that: no captures, no squares, no forced jumps — the star board and the hop-only rules are their own game.

International checkers if you want flying kings and mandatory captures on a 10×10 board instead.

Frequently asked questions