  In 1979, David Fabian found a complete game of two-person Chinese Checkers in
30 moves (15 by each player) [Martin Gardner, Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor
Ciphers, MAA, 1997]. This solution requires that the two players cooperate to
generate a win as quickly as possible for one of them. We show, using
computational search techniques, that no shorter game is possible. We also
consider a solitaire version of Chinese Checkers where one player attempts to
move her pieces across the board in as few moves as possible. In 1971, Octave
Levenspiel found a solution in 27 moves [Ibid.]; we demonstrate that no shorter
solution exists. To show optimality, we employ a variant of A* search, as well
as bidirectional search.
