Chinese Checkers rules, interface and game example
Game rules:
The task in Chinese Checkers, is to move all the 10 marbles in a start triangle across the board and into the opposite home triangle. The winner is the player/team who succeeds in placing all their marbles in their respective home triangles in fewer moves than their opponents. A game is drawn if an equal number of moves have been made by each player/team.
There are two kinds of moves. A simple move consists in moving a marble to an adjacent empty hole. A hopping move consists in moving a marble over an adjacent marble to an empty hole beyond. When making a hopping move, the move may be continued as long as it is possible to make a further hopping move from the new position. A marble can not be placed in a triangle other than its own start and home triangle. However when making a hopping move, the marble may move through any of the triangles.
To avoid the game getting stalled by a situation where a player is blocked (by marbles of the opposite color) from making a forward move, the rule is that the owner of the opposite marbles must make a move to release the blocked player. A message box will be displayed to any player who fail to make such a move, and the game can only be continued after a valid move has been made.
In the rare instance that a player cannot make any move in any direction (without the previous applying), the right to move is passed to the next player. Such a forfeited move will count as a move when calculating how many moves this player has made.
The player with the black marbles is always making the first move in a game, and the right to make the next move is passed in the clockwise direction.
App interface:
The help section.
Connecting to the game, starting to play (joining a game room), options and how to quit:
Connect to the game server. Choose your region. If playing with friends from different parts of the world you must agree on a region (you can connect to any region no matter where you live).
The square in the lower left corner shows the connection status; red for disconnected, yellow for changing connection and green for connected.
Create or join a public room. Choose a game mode (room type). You will have to wait until a sufficient number of players have joined the room you are in before starting to play.
Create or join a friends room. In order to have friends join a room you have created for them you need to supply them with the room name (see the paragraph immediately below). To join a friends room, paste the room name you have been supplied with (after having copied it to the clipboard).
Have the room name displayed. After having created a friends room, copy the room name to the clipboard then paste it into messages to your friends using an external chat or mail service. Please note: You can not use the game's own chat function for this purpose (see the 'chat' paragraph further below).
(In a public room the room name will be displayed in red.)
IMPORTANT: If you lose your internet connection (temporarily), you will automatically rejoin the room you were in when reconnecting. Make sure you don't close the game program (app).
The image in the upper right corner shows whose turn it is. By clicking/tapping a marble in this image players can rotate the board on their screens independent of other players.
The square in the lower right corner becomes cyan when it is your turn.
To make a move click/tap a marble of your choice then click/tap the hole you want to move it to. A message will be displayed if you attempt an invalid move. Other players' moves will be displayed with a helpful blinking animation. If you choose you can interrupt this animation when it is your turn, but it is recommended that you don't do that when there are more than two players. If you tap a marble by mistake, the started move can be cancelled by tapping any marble, after which you choose another marble.
Leave a game room.
Request a new game to be started in the same game room. This can be done during play or after a game is finished. The request must be acquiesced by all players. When a new game is started within the same room each player will be given a new set of color(s), different from the previous game.
If a player disappears (loses connection without reappearing or closes the program), remaining players may request a cancellation of the current game, for instance in order to start a new one.
Open, close and reopen the game's own chat window. When reopening the chat window you will see all previous entries. Please note: You can only chat with players who are in the same game room as yourself.
Reverse start and home triangle colors. By default your home triangle(s) has/have your marbles' color(s). Each player can reverse the start and home triangle colors independent of other players.
Have displayed the game status (who is in the lead). Players ought to agree whether using this function shall be allowed or not.
The winner(s) will be displayed in the lower right corner of the app. While there is still a possibility for a draw this display has a transparency.
Disconnect from the game server.
When playing on a small screen, i.e. a mobile phone, use this button to have displayed all options described above.
Game example:
