Hobbies And Interests
The board is set up according to how many players wish to play. If two players are playing, they will set up their pieces in two of the six triangles opposite each other. If three play, they will set up in alternate triangles so each person has one empty triangle on either side of their own. If four play, players use two sets of opposing triangles. If six play, all six triangles are used.
Players place their pieces in their triangle. Each triangle has 10 spaces, and pieces are placed in each space. Pegs, pebbles or marbles are common types of pieces.
The object is to move all of your own pieces to the triangle opposite you on the other side of the board. Players may move any marble one space or by "jumping" over another piece in an adjacent space to an empty space directly on the other side of the piece "jumped." Pieces can be moved in any direction. A single piece can be moved as many times as possible in one turn if the player can maintain an unbroken chain of consecutive jumps of other pieces. You may jump your own pieces or any other players' pieces. Once you move one of your pieces into the target triangle, you may only move it within the triangle. Jumped pieces are not removed from the board.
The first player to move all of his pieces to the opposite triangle wins. Strategy in Chinese checkers revolves around setting up the chains of jumps to move your pieces across the board quickly while trying to keep your opponent from doing the same. Blocking is sometimes used to keep your opponent from moving a piece into his target triangle. For example, if another player only needs to get in one piece to win, instead of going to your own triangle, you would direct a piece into that lone spot in the foe's triangle so she can't place her piece there and win. While this is not against the rules, it rarely leads to a victory by the blocker, and will annoy some players.