Chinese checkers

Chinese checkers
A typical pitted-wood gameboard using six differently colored sets of marbles. Another popular format uses colored pegs in holes.
Genres
Players2–4, 6
Playing time10–30 minutes
ChanceNone
Age range7+
SkillsStrategy, tactics
Synonyms
  • Star halma
  • Sternhalma
  • Hop Ching checkers
  • Tiaoqi ("jump chess")

Chinese checkers (US) or Chinese chequers (UK), known as Sternhalma in German, is a strategy board game of German origin that can be played by two, three, four, or six people, playing individually or with partners. The game is a modern and simplified variation of the game Halma.

The objective is to be first to race all of one's pieces across the hexagram-shaped board into "home"—the corner of the star opposite one's starting corner—using single-step moves or moves that jump over other pieces. The remaining players continue the game to establish second-, third-, fourth-, fifth-, and last-place finishers.