Chinese Checkers: the race my last marble won alone
I clicked my last marble and sent it over four strangers in a row. The star board shivered under the cursor, and the whole race turned around.
The straggler who passed everyone
Halfway through I was losing badly. Nine of my marbles crowded the far corner of the 121-hole board, and the tenth sat at home in the starting corner. My rival was already parking last marbles in my old house, and I nearly gave up. Nearly is a big word in Chinese Checkers.
A ladder made of strangers
The middle of the board was packed: marbles of both colors stood in a dense crowd. And a crowd in this game is a gift. You can jump over any marble, yours or theirs, as long as the hole behind it is empty. I traced the chain: my straggler hops one, lands, then a second, a third. Each jump covers two holes. Walking, it would crawl for ten turns. Chained, it flew home in one.
The tip of the corner decides
I filled the far corner from its tip, as the board itself teaches. The farthest row is short: whoever stands there first blocks nobody. I placed marbles one by one, top down, and each next one found an empty hole. My rival scattered theirs and spent the endgame elbowing inside their own corner, with nowhere left for the last one.
The one move I remember
I remember that straggler dash better than the whole match. Click the marble, watch the holes light up, click along the chain, and the marble that looked lost stands beside the rest. Nine waited for one. Then all ten stood together.
Since then I never abandon the straggler. I check whether a ladder runs through the middle for it, and I race it home first.