Aeroplane chess

Aeroplane chess (simplified Chinese: 飞行棋; traditional Chinese: 飛行棋; pinyin: fēixíng qí, literally "aviation game" or "flying chess") is a Chinese cross-and-circle board game similar to the Western game of Ludo and the Indian game of Pachisi. Developed in the 20th century, aeroplane chess features airplanes as pieces instead of the more abstract pawns and beehive-shaped pieces found in the games from which it is derived. Aeroplane chess has spread around the world, especially in Africa.

History and implementation

Aeroplane chess comes in many different packages that are manufactured by different companies. The inventor of aeroplane chess is not known, but it may have been developed directly from Ludo. The game has entered the public domain, now ranking among Jungle and Luzhanqi as one of China's classic modern board games.

Equipment

Gameboard with the following notable features:

Four starting hangars in each corner, one for each color, with an adjacent launch area

A multicolored track consisting of 52 spaces, evenly divided between the colours red, yellow, blue and green

Four arrow-shaped home zones, each leading from the track to the end spaces at the centre of the board

Four shortcut spaces, one in each color, usually illustrated with a dashed line and arrow

Four sets of 4 coloured airplane pieces, typically red, yellow, blue and green.

A die, typically 6-sided.

Objective

Two to four players each try to get all their own plane pieces from their hangars, located at the corners of the board, into the base of their opponents colour in the centre of the board. Each player takes a turn by rolling the dice.