Chinese checkers board

We use a \foreach loop that takes the number of positions in each row as the loop list. For the standard chinese checkers boards, that could look like \foreach \m [count=\count] in {1,…,4,13,12,…,9,10,11,…,13,4,3,…,1}.

If you systematically name the nodes you create in this loop, you’ve got a very nice framework for drawing Chinese Checkers setups and moves. I’ve written a couple of macros and styles for this.

The command \checkerboard[checkerboard labels] will draw a blank board with the fields labeled –.

We can then place pieces using

\placepieces[]{}

and show moves using

\showmove{}

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\documentclass[tikz,border=10pt]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{backgrounds,decorations}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\newif\ifcheckerboardlabels
\tikzset{
    pieces/.style={
        fill,
        circle,
        minimum size=0.5cm
    },
    positions/.style={
        fill=black!5, draw=gray,
        solid,
        circle,
        minimum size=0.6cm,
        inner sep=0pt,
    },
    checkerboard labels/.is if=checkerboardlabels,
    checkerboard labels/.default=true,
    move/.style={
        -latex,
        densely dashed,
        very thick,
        bend right=45
    }
}
\newcommand{\checkerboard}[1][]{
    \begin{scope}[#1]
        \foreach \m [count=\count] in {1,...,4,13,12,...,9,10,11,...,13,4,3,...,1}{
            \foreach \n in {1,...,\m}
                \node at (\n-\m/2,\count) [
                    positions,
                    name=pos-\count-\n,
                    outer sep=0.5cm,
                    label=center:{\ifcheckerboardlabels \count-\n\fi}] {};
        }
        \begin{pgfonlayer}{background}
 
 
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