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History of the Chinese Checkers Patent
Chinese checkers originated from an American game called Halma. Halma’s rules were quite similar to Chinese checkers’, but the game was played on a square board.
In 1892, a game by the name of Stern-Halma was invented. The game was identical to Halma, but was played on a board in the shape of a star, hence the name Stern (German for star).
In 1928, Bill and Jack Pressman introduced a game called Chinese checkers. It was identical to Stern-Halma in design and rules and merely contained different branding. The game is not a variation of checkers and did not originate in China or even broader Asia, making the name very misleading. The brothers chose the name to keep up with American interest in oriental imports at the time.
With the rising success of Chinese checkers, Jack Pressman created the Pressman Toy Company. While Chinese checkers drove a significant portion of their sales, the company went on to have many other major hits including Mastermind.
The game can be played with 2-6 people and each player gets 10 “checkers” pieces. The goal is to be the first one to move all of your pieces to the other side of the board in opponents territory. You can only move one square at a time unless there is an empty space directly adjacent to one of your or your opponents pieces, similar to capturing an opponent's piece in checkers.
In 1940, John Huffaker of Bloomington, Illinois was granted a patent for a Chinese checkers game board. His design made the game more practical to transport by including a folding mechanism and storage for the pieces. This is Huffaker’s only known patent.