I don’t know why it is called Chinese checkers in English. In Chinese, it is simply called Hop Ching. The only thing related to China, I guess, might be its popularity in China. Everyone, young or old, knows how to play it.
Actually it was invented in the 1920s in America but more based on an earlier Victorian game called Halma, which is played on a square 16×16 chequer board. Now the board can be made with anything, from cardboard, wooden board with holes for pegs or just plain paper or plastic sheet. 
The Chinese Checkers board is in the shape of a six pointed star. Each point of the star is a triangle consisting of ten holes (four holes to each side). The interior of the board is a hexagon with each side five holes long. Each triangle is a different colour and there are six sets of ten pegs with corresponding colours.
The game can be played by two, three, four, or six players. For the six-player game, all pegs and triangles are used; if there are four players, play starts in two pairs of opposing triangles and a two-player game should also be played from opposing triangles. In a three player game the pegs will start in three triangles equidistant from each other.
Each player chooses a colour and the 10 pegs of that colour are placed in the same coloured triangle. A toss of a coin decides who starts. Players take turns to move a single peg of their own colours. In one turn one peg may either be simply moved to an adjacent hole or it may make one or two hops over other pegs. Where a hopping move is made, each hop must be over an adjacent peg and into the vacant hole directly beyond it (on the same straight line). Each hop may be over any coloured peg including the player’s own. The best players would be able to set up their own pegs or use others’ pegs to make as many hops as possible until it reaches its destination. Making single moves without hopping would not help much to win the game. Therefore, not to put your own peg on the spot to be hopped over (or as we usually say, build a bridge for other players) is a very important strategy of not losing the game.
The aim of the game is to be the first player to move all his/her coloured ten pegs across the board and into the triangle opposite.
The first reason I was reminded to write about this game is our topic of this week, school, and the second reason is it was my mum’s favorite game, (by the way, my mum passed away last year). Whenever we were home and had some time to play with her, she would take out her Chinese Checkers board, and her pegs are beautiful glass marbles (as in Figure 2). But more often I noticed that she was playing three-player up to six-player game by herself, when no company was available. That was an amazing scene with her acting like a general while all coloured troops were under her control to combat in a “brutal” battlefield.
Figure 2: My mum’s Chinese Checkers with cardboard board and glass marbles
However, she always preferred to have us play with her because, according to her, it would bring more unexpected turns and she would have to think harder for a better plan to win. She said if she played multiple players, she would coordinate the moves of all coloured pegs in a way to help each other successfully reach their opposite triangles. It’s more coordination than competition. That means that she would move each peg with the consideration to set up bridges for other coloured pegs. But when she was playing with other players, the rivals’ steps were more unexpected and each player would have to think of strategies to build more barriers than bridges while moving their own pegs to destination faster than others.
When retrospecting what she described, I am inspired to think about the function of schooling. Schools are the places students go to attend classes, but more importantly to meet teachers and peers. The work they can do by themselves in learning might be very fruitful, but when collaborating with teachers or peers, they would encounter different kinds of thinking, ideas, feedback, contribution, which are beyond their expectations or preparation. These unexpected moves from others would inspire and expand their thinking, understanding and reacting. Children like to go to school for the reasons of meeting peers to work with them, play with them and run around with them. However, it is only when they start to feel more pressure from exams, scores, ranking, or boredom of one-way lecturing in the class does schooling become less attractive and more grudging. Students want surprise and excitement from all kinds of unexpectedness from other people. This is what has been missed most in this pandemic home/online schooling.
We have to remember our original purpose of putting all these students into schools. The current schools are no longer to mass produce the final products, as did in the Industrial Revolution era, which was the reason the idea of unschooling came out. Therefore, schools have to find ways to return the interaction back to students, through creating an environment with multiple players working together and contributing in their own ways from their specialties while also being inspired by others. Peers are both for competition and collaboration. That’s the beauty of schooling. In the same way, our purpose of playing games is not just for competition or rewards, but more for collaboration to enjoy the fun time with each other. When designing digital games, I hope we will not forget our original purpose for game play.
When I was looking back at my mom’s solo game, I felt heart-breaking and regretted why we didn’t spend more time to accompany her and play her favorite game with her. This regretful feeling further convinces me that we should create more opportunities to accompany each other in our schooling as well as our game-based learning.
Design Just For You 