Starhop: play Chinese Checkers online free

What is Starhop Chinese Checkers?

Starhop is Chinese Checkers on the classic 121-hole star, ready to play in your browser. Race your ten marbles from your point of the star into the point opposite, stepping one hole at a time or hopping over other marbles in chains of jumps that can cross the whole board in a single turn. Tap a marble and every hole it can reach lights up; hover over one, or press and hold it, to see the exact route before you go.

Play with two, three, four or six players: against the computer at four levels, with friends passing one screen, or online at a table where computer players fill any empty seats. Each player's last move stays on the board as a coloured trail, and the turn order runs down the side, so it's always clear who just moved and who is next.

How to play Starhop Chinese Checkers

1. Choose the number of players and how to play at the top. Your marbles start in the point of the star nearest you.
2. On your turn, move one marble. Step to an empty hole next to it, or jump over one marble (yours or anyone's) into the empty hole directly beyond.
3. After a jump you may keep jumping from where you land, in any direction, as long as each jump is legal. You can't mix a step with jumps.
4. Nothing is captured. You may pass through other points of the star, but you can't end a move in one that isn't your start or your goal.
5. The first player to fill the point opposite their start wins. If an opponent leaves a marble in your goal, you still win once every other hole there holds one of yours.

Starhop Chinese Checkers tips and strategy

• Build ladders: a line of marbles with gaps between them lets your back marbles hop all the way forward.
• Don't leave stragglers. One marble stuck at the back can cost you the game.
• Use other players' marbles as stepping stones, and watch for the long jumps you open up for them.
• Fill your goal from the tip first, so the last marbles can still get in.

Playing with 2, 3, 4 or 6 players

With two players you start in opposite points. Three players take every other point, so each heads for an empty goal. With four, two pairs face each other across the board, and with six every point is full and the middle gets crowded fast. Turns go clockwise, and the side panel shows the order, whose turn it is and how many of each player's marbles are home.

The four computer levels

Easy wanders forward and misses long jumps. Medium takes the move that leaves its marbles best placed. Hard looks at its next move too and avoids opening up jumps for the player after it. Insane searches several moves ahead with two players and, with more, plans three of its own moves while blocking whoever is closest to finishing. Hints use the Hard player: two a game on Easy, one on Medium and Hard, none on Insane.

Play Chinese Checkers online with friends

Choose Online, then Quick match to join an open table or Invite friends to get a link or a code. The host picks the number of players and how strong the computer players are; they fill any seat nobody takes, and a friend who arrives late takes over a computer player's seat. Every move is checked on our server, each turn has a time limit, and a dropped connection reconnects on its own.

Starhop Chinese Checkers FAQ