To win in Halma you must be the first to move all your counters from their starting positions in your yard into the opponent's yard. Players take turns, moving a single counter at a time. A counter may move in one of two ways:
1) It may shift to an adjacent square horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, or
2) It may leap over an adjacent counter (of either color) to the opposite, unoccupied square. The counter leapt over is not captured. A leaping counter may continue to leap over other counters until there are no more to leap over or the player decides to stop. To stop leaping prematurely, select 'Pass Move' from the menus or the toolbar.
Note that in all these new versions of Halma it is not allowable to jump or step backwards (i.e. in the direction of one's own yard). In the above picture it would mean that the red pieces are not allowed to move east, south, or south-east.
Traditional Halma is a simple draw, since neither side is forced to move all its counters out of its starting position. In this version, if a counter in its home position can make progress outward by jumping an enemy counter it must do so (a rule invented by S. Sackson).
Since a counter which has just jumped can continue jumping, you should try to form 'ladders' of jumpable counters to more quickly get your counters down the board. Try to avoid that the opponent can jump via your own counters.
These variants have been invented by me (Dec 2005) and are inspired by the Halma variant Grasshopper. Original Halma, (the big 16 square version) was invented in 1883 by the Harvard Medical School surgeon, George Howard Monks. Original Halma caught on in England, and to some extent in Germany, but otherwise hasn't had much success, although it became the favorite game of the last Empress of Russia, Alexandra Feodorovna. The word 'Halma' comes from the Greek word for 'leap'. |
