After losing horribly at chess to @cryptoniusrex and @Daddyspardan in the pizza server. I decided to play a game that I am much better at: My favorite boardgame Chinese Checkers.
I always wondered if there was an online version of Chinese Checkers for free, especially one I can play my friends with an invite. It turns out there is one! It was created in 2020 during the pandemic so people can play together online. https://www.chinesecheckers.online/ The game didn't even make me confirm my email so its REALLY easy to sign up. There is a international leaderboard.
Chinese Checkers is the best game because there are so few rules, but there are so many combinations. It takes strategy. There is offense and defense.
The game works like checkers except you never take the opponents pieces. you just jump over them. Whoever gets to the end first wins. Simple right? You will see it is complex because I beat my enemy so badly. 🤣 He did warn me he was a beginner. I gave him some priceless tips.
The first mistake my enemy made was opening up outwards. You always want to open from the outcorner inwards. Notice how I am setting myself up to do a 5 turn jump [I am the green marbles]. Below is a simulation of what my next two moves will be. You always want to try and set yourself up with a pathways through the center of the level.
One of the most common and dangerous rookie move is to try and get 1 or 2 of your marbles in the goalpost [other side] first: While ignoring the fact that you have more marbles at the beginning. You NEVER want to leave marbles in the beginning triangle. I locked this poor sucker into position with some clever defensive moves. [Notice how it looks like the orange color is winning, but if you study the board closely I [green] am winning.
One more piece of pro advice is to keep your lines going even if the enemy is skipping across your line. If the enemy is dangerously close to beating you, see if there is a defensive move that you can do to block the enemy from skipping, especially a defensive move that helps you skip further. It takes a while to be able to read the board properly, try to make every move count.
It felt nice to win at a game after being R worded in chess. If you have never played Chinese Checkers I highly recommend it. I like 1 v 1 the best but you can play with up to 6 people. A full game is fun every once and a while. It's a bit crazy. The lobby is a bit dead compared to Chess sites although I did find a player almost right away. The site is also only a year old.
I would like to see more people on this site! It has a really nice international scoreboard. You do not need premium to be on the scoreboard! I see my name on it already! Like I mentioned previously the site didn't even require me to prove my email. I just put in my email, username and password and it let me in. https://www.chinesecheckers.online/
Come play me. https://discord.gg/V4WBMepH7s Also join the pizza server if you want to voice chat and play. There's also chess games there. 🍕