Aeroplane Chess

How to play Aeroplane Chess (Flying Chess)

Aeroplane Chess, known across East Asia as Flying Chess or 飞行棋, is a beloved family race game played on a four-armed cross board. Each of up to four players commands a squadron of four planes and tries to fly all of them from the hangar, once around the cross track and safely into the central home base. It belongs to the same cross-and-circle family as Ludo and Pachisi, but adds two signature twists that give it its name: colour-matching jumps and a long diagonal "flight" shortcut. The rules are simple enough for children yet leave plenty of room for daring plays and unlucky crashes. On AppFreeGame you can play two, three or four players on the same screen, and fill any empty seat with a computer bot so a solo player still gets a full table.

The goal

Be the first player to get all four of your planes into the central home base. A plane only counts as home when it reaches the very centre by an exact roll. The moment a player parks their fourth plane in the centre, that player wins and the game ends. There is no second place to play out — the race is simply to be first, so every capture, jump and shortcut you can grab (or deny an opponent) matters.

The board and setup

The board is a cross with four coloured arms — red, yellow, blue and green — meeting at a central home base. Each colour has a corner hangar holding its four planes and a start cell where planes join the shared ring track. The main track runs clockwise around the whole cross for 52 cells; after almost a full lap each colour turns off the ring into its own six-cell home lane leading to the centre. Choose 2, 3 or 4 players; with two players the colours sit on opposite arms for balance. Mark each seat as human or bot, then start. Play passes clockwise, and every turn begins with a single roll of the die.

Rules of play

• Launching needs a 6. On your turn you roll one die. A plane can only leave its hangar and move onto its start cell when you roll a 6. With any other number, planes still in the hangar cannot move at all.
• A 6 earns an extra roll. Whenever you roll a 6 you take your move and then roll again, so a lucky streak can cover a lot of ground in one turn.
• Moving. Planes already on the track move forward by exactly the number rolled, following the ring clockwise. If none of your planes can make a legal move with the number you rolled, your turn simply passes.
• Capturing. If your plane finishes its move on a track cell that holds one or more opponent planes, every one of those planes is sent all the way back to its hangar and must be launched again with a fresh 6. Your own planes may safely stack together on one cell.
• Colour jump. Every fourth cell along the track is your own colour. If a plane finishes a move exactly on one of your colour cells, it immediately hops forward four more cells to the next cell of your colour — a free advance, after which capturing is checked at the new cell.
• Three sixes. Rolling three sixes in a row in a single turn is punished: the third six gives no move, the plane you moved most recently that turn is sent back to its hangar, and your turn ends.

The flight shortcut

Each colour has one special launch-pad cell of its own colour on the far side of the board, marked with a small plane symbol. If your plane finishes a move exactly on your own launch pad, it takes the great diagonal flight: instead of the ordinary four-cell colour jump, it soars twelve cells forward across the board, landing much closer to your home lane. As with any landing, if it comes down on opponents they are sent back to their hangars. The shortcut is the fastest way around the cross, so timing a roll to land on it is one of the game’s biggest swings. In this version a plane takes at most one special move per turn — a jump or a flight, never both chained together.

Coming home (exact roll)

After almost a full lap your plane turns off the main ring into your own six-cell home lane, which no other colour can enter — planes are completely safe from capture there. To finish, a plane must reach the central home base by an exact roll. If your roll would carry the plane past the centre, that move is illegal and you must either move a different plane or, if nothing else is legal, pass. So a plane sitting three steps from home is only released by rolling a 3 (or a smaller number to edge closer first). Planning these final approaches — and not overshooting — is often what decides a close game.

Winning

The first player to bring all four planes into the central home base wins immediately. Because a single well-timed capture can knock an opponent’s plane all the way back to the start, a game is rarely decided until the last plane is parked. Even a player far behind can surge back with a shortcut flight or a lucky run of sixes, so it is worth playing every turn to the end.

Playing with bots

Any seat can be a computer bot. A bot rolls and moves by itself, choosing sensible plays: it prefers to capture an opponent, then to take a jump or the flight shortcut, then to launch a new plane, and otherwise advances its furthest plane. Bots let you practise on your own, complete a three- or four-player table with fewer people, or simply watch a full game play out. Everything runs on your device, so the game works offline once the page has loaded.

Strategy tips

• Get planes flying early. You can only launch on a 6 and every launched plane is another chance to use good rolls, so free your planes from the hangar as soon as you can rather than hoarding sixes for one plane.
• Hunt the colour jumps and the shortcut. Landing on your own colour gives a free four-cell hop, and reaching your launch pad flies you twelve cells across the board — count the pips before you move so you grab these leaps whenever possible.
• Use captures as both attack and defence. Sending a rival back to the hangar costs them a whole lap and a fresh 6 to relaunch. Threatening a capture can also force opponents to play cautiously.
• Mind the exact-roll finish and spread your risk. Keep a plane where a common roll brings it home, and try not to leave a single plane exposed on an open track cell where a rival can pick it off.

Frequently asked questions