1937 · Saml. Gabriel Sons and Company
Ching Gong for Four is a Halma variant for two, three or four players on a unique star-shaped board with eight points. The board is comprised of 133 dots connected by lines, with 11 dots on each corner and 45 in the center of the board. The eight star points are in four colors, each color matching the star point on the opposite side of the board. The players' pieces begin on a star point of the same color, and the objective is to be the first to move all of a player's pieces to the opposite star point and win the game.
Rules for movement are the same as for Halma and Chinese Checkers, meaning that players take turns moving one piece at a time in any direction, and that players may jump their own or other players' pieces. Pieces are not removed from the board. The pieces must move only along the lines connecting the dots on the board however, and Ching Gong for Four's board is unusual in this regard. Not only does it have eight points or corners instead of four or six, but not every dot is connected to the other. Half the dots are connected to eight surround dots, the other half only four surrounding dots.
This game is not to be confused with another game from the same publisher, Ching Gong for Two, which is played on a standard Chinese Checkers board and has three colors of pieces.
