Chinese Checkers · Rules guide
Chinese Checkers rules: how to play
The star board, the two kinds of move, and the chain jumps that decide every game — plus the two house rules that stop a game stalling, and how two, three, four and six players differ.
The short answer
- Move all ten of your marbles into the point directly opposite to win.
- A turn is either one step to an adjacent hole or a chain of jumps — never both.
- Jumps cross a single adjacent marble of any colour and never capture anything.
- Chains can continue as long as jumps are available, which is where the whole game lives.
- House rules stop squatters blocking your home and stop marbles parking in other players' points.
The board and the object
Chinese Checkers is played on a six-pointed star of 121 holes. Each player starts with ten marbles filling one point of the star, and the object is to move every one of them into the opposite point. First player to fill their target point wins — and in most games the race is decided by two or three moves.
- Players: two, three, four or six. Two, three and six give everyone a symmetrical position; four uses two opposite pairs of points.
- Marbles: ten each in the standard game (fifteen in some older sets, using a larger triangle).
- No captures. Nothing is ever removed from the board — this is a pure race.
Two kinds of move: step and jump
On your turn you move one marble, in one of two ways.
Step
Move one marble to any adjacent empty hole. The lattice is triangular, so every interior hole has six neighbours — two along the row, and two in each of the rows above and below.
Jump
Hop over a single adjacent marble — yours or anyone's — into the empty hole directly beyond it. The jumped marble is not captured; it stays exactly where it is.
And here is the whole game: if the marble can jump again from its new hole, it may, as many times as the position allows, changing direction freely. A single turn can carry a marble from one end of the star to the other.
You may not mix them
A turn is either a single step or a chain of jumps. You cannot step and then jump, or jump and then step.
Chains: the reason the game is good
Chains of jumps are where Chinese Checkers stops being a children's game. A well-built line of marbles — yours and your opponents' — is a ladder that a single marble can climb in one turn.
Two consequences shape every game:
- Ladders are shared. Building a chain to advance your own marbles also builds one your opponent can use.
- Tempo is everything. A four-jump chain is worth four ordinary moves. Games are won by the player who builds longer chains, not by the one who moves more often.
The rules that stop the game stalling
Two situations spoil an otherwise clean race, and every serious rule set has an answer to them.
Squatters
What if an opponent parks a marble in your target point and never moves it? You can never finish. The standard fix, used on this site as "squatters can't block home": if an enemy marble sits in your home point, you win by filling every other hole of that point.
Parking in someone else's point
The other abuse is using a third player's point as a shortcut or a rest stop. The common rule — "no parking in other points" — lets marbles jump through a point that is neither their start nor their destination, but not stop in it.
Two, three, four or six players
| Players | Points used | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Opposite points | The purest version — a straight race with maximum blocking. |
| 3 | Alternate points | Symmetrical; everyone's route crosses everyone else's. |
| 4 | Two opposite pairs | Two points sit empty, which opens up the middle. |
| 6 | All points | The most chaotic — and the version where chains get longest. |
| Teams (4 or 6) | Opposite pairs | Partners share a target and may use each other's marbles as ladders. |
With more players the board fills up, chains get longer, and the game becomes faster and more tactical. With two players it is slower, more positional and much more about blocking.
Common questions
How many marbles does each player get in Chinese Checkers?
Ten in the standard modern game. Some older sets use fifteen with a larger starting triangle, which makes for a longer, more congested race.
Do you capture marbles in Chinese Checkers?
No. Nothing is ever removed from the board — jumped marbles stay exactly where they are. It is a pure race with blocking, not a capture game.
Can you jump over two marbles at once?
No. Each jump crosses exactly one adjacent marble into the empty hole immediately beyond it. You may then jump again from there, which is how long chains form.
Can you step and then jump in the same turn?
No. A turn is either a single step or a sequence of jumps. Mixing the two is the most common rules mistake among new players.
What happens if someone blocks my home point?
Under the usual rule, if an opponent leaves a marble in your target point you win by filling every other hole in it. Without that rule a single stubborn marble could make the game unwinnable.
How many people can play Chinese Checkers?
Two, three, four or six. Two, three and six are symmetrical; four uses two opposite pairs of points and leaves two points empty.
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