Kevin HY Hau - Hello World 👋

📖 Rules of 波子棋 (Chinese Checkers)

波子 (bōzi) is Cantonese for “marble”. Each player has 10 marbles (or 15) in one point of a six-pointed star. The aim is to move every marble into the opposite point before anyone else does. Nothing is ever captured.

On your turn, move one marble in one of two ways

• Step: to any empty hole next to it (six directions).
• Hop: jump over one marble (yours or anyone’s) in a straight line and land on an empty hole exactly as far beyond it as you were before it. If the marble is next to you, you land just past it. If there are 2 empty holes before the marble, you land 2 holes after it, and so on. All the holes in between, on both sides, must be empty, and the landing hole must be on the board.
• Chain: after a hop you may keep hopping with the same marble, in any direction, as many times as you can. You can stop at any time. Tap the hole where you want to end up.

Winning

• The first player to have all marbles in the opposite point wins. With 3 or more players the game ends as soon as one player gets there; the result shows how far everyone got.
• Tip: build a “ladder” of marbles so your others can hop along it, and don’t leave one marble far behind.

This version

• You are the bottom point (red). Other colours are the computer (Easy, Normal or Hard), or choose “Pass and play”, where the board turns to face whoever’s turn it is.
• Players: 2 (opposite points), 3, 4 or 6. 15 marbles each is only for 2 or 3 players (otherwise it gets too crowded).
• The Hops setting switches to the simpler rule where you may only hop over a marble that is right next to you.
• Select a marble to see where it can go: small dots are steps, rings are hops.