For example, you tap your opponent’s hand. You have one finger and they have two. They then add the fingers and on their tapped hand, they put out three fingers. On the next turn, your opponent uses their hand of three fingers to tap your hand of one. You now have to hold out four fingers because your one finger plus their three equals four fingers. Only the tapping hand has the power to change your opponent’s hand. [1] X Research source
There are several variations of this rule, but the simple rules of Chopsticks dictate that once a hand has reached five fingers, that hand is useless. Which makes sense because one of background stories behind Chopsticks is that you can hold a chopstick with up to one finger, but an open hand means that you are going to drop your utensil and food as well. [3] X Research source
The goal of this strategy is to prevent one of your hands from reaching five fingers and becoming dead. Splits don’t have to be even, but it’s preferable. Some odd number combinations merely means swapping fingers between hands with no strategic bonus. However, if you have a combination such as four fingers and one finger on each hand, you can split that into a hand of three and a hand of two. A player can “revive” a dead hand by splitting. If you have one hand dead and one alive with four fingers, you can split and put two fingers on each hand to bring your dead hand back into the game. A variation on the splits rule is the “house rule. " This rule either means that splits are not allowed or that splits are allowed but can’t bring a hand back from the dead. [4] X Research source
This rule is also known as “exact play. " This rule allows for the possibility of stalemate if both players have two hands of four points
Adding people will make the game stretch on much longer. This method requires much more focus to win. With so many people playing, there may be a person with a hand about to reach five fingers who splits their fingers and it goes unnoticed by the group. Make sure that everyone is following the same set of rules before starting. There is no wrong way to play but make sure everyone is in agreement with rules before starting a round.
Two nubs equal one finger so it takes longer to make a combination or nubs and full fingers equal enough for a dead hand. Decide if nubs are allowed at the beginning of the game. A desperate player will often add the nubs variant when they are about to lose. An example for splitting fingers into nubs can look like this: there are two fingers on your left hand and three on your right. If you split them, you can put 2. 5 fingers or, two fingers and a nub, on either hand. Nubs are most beneficial for when you have a total uneven amount of fingers. You must complete someone’s nub in order to make it a full finger. To make a dead hand you must have five full fingers, not four full fingers and one nub.
Sometimes this variation is called “zombies. " This rule could make the game could go on forever since you recycle fingers. The only option for a dead hand is that it equals exactly five fingers when tapped. [8] X Research source
