also offers variations with different board sizes or special rules, giving players the opportunity to challenge themselves in new ways. In the online version of Halma, various features like timers, leaderboards, and chat functionalities are often included to enhance the competitive and social aspects of the game.

Long-term strategy involves planning the most efficient route across the board, while also potentially blocking or slowing down opponents. Short-term tactics involve optimizing each turn's moves and setting up for potential future jumps. The game demands both tactical maneuvering and strategic foresight. Multiple jumps are allowed, and often chains of jumps can provide a speedy route across the board. Players take turns to move a single piece, either by moving it to an adjacent empty square or by jumping it over another piece, either their own or an opponent's. The objective of Halma is to move all of one's pieces from their starting corner to the opposite corner of the board before the opponents do. The most commonly used online board is a 16x16 grid, although other sizes may be available. Often compared to Chinese Checkers-a game it predates-Halma is a game that can be played by two to four players. The inventor of Super Halma, Andrew Perkis, concluded that Super Halma was best played on a 10 x 10 board as a 2 player game with 19 pieces on each side.Halma is a classic strategy board game that has been adapted for online play, offering a convenient platform for enthusiasts and newcomers to challenge each other from various locations. The basic 'adjacent jump' allowed in the standard game is just the shortest form of a long jump. Put another way: A piece can jump a single other piece at any distance, provided that the jumped piece lies at the exact midpoint of the jump. In this variation called Super Halma, a piece may jump over a piece any number of empty spaces away, provided it can land the same number of empty spaces beyond it in a straight line. Halma can be speeded up and subjectively made more interesting by allowing 'long jumps'. This applies for both a single hole move and any part of a hopping move. If a player is prevented from winning because of the presence of an opposing peg in the destination area, the player is entitled to swap the opposing peg with that of his own peg. Masters Games suggests the following additional rule invented by James Masters in 2002 which is wide enough to capture all such situations: The game is simply won when all the available points within the triangle are occupied. A number of anti-spoiling rules have been proposed - one work-around is to say that should one or more of the holes in the target triangle contain a peg belonging to another player, this does not prevent a player from winning. Anti-Spoilingĭebate has always arisen over the situation where a player is prevented from winning because an opposing player's peg occupies one of the holes in the destination triangle. Once a piece has reached the opposite area, it may not be moved out of the area but it may move within the area. It is permitted to move a piece into any square on the board including squares in areas belonging to other players. It does occasionally happen that a player is able to move a piece all the way from the starting corner across the board and into the opposite corner in one turn! After each hop, the player may either finish or, if possible and desired, continue by hopping over another piece. A hop may be over any coloured piece including the player's own and can proceed in any one of the eight directions. Where a hopping move is made, each hop must be over an adjacent piece and into the vacant square directly beyond it. The piece may either be simply moved into an adjacent square OR it may make one or more hops over other pieces. Players take turns to move a single piece of their own colour. The PlayĪ toss of a coin decides who starts. In this case, the game is won when all the available points within the area are occupied.

Should one or more of the squares in the target area contain a piece belonging to another player, this does not prevent a player from winning. The aim of the game is to be the first to player to move all pieces across the board and into opposing corner, within area delineated by the heavy line. When 2 players play, 19 pieces are positioned in the appropriate opposing corners in formation 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 4 when 4 players play, 13 pieces are positioned in each corner in formation 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 3. Pieces are usually flat disks like draughtsmen or upright like the classic pawn in chess. Two opposing corners additionally have another heavy line which delineates the 19 corner squares for the initial position of the pieces in the 2 player game. In each corner, a heavy line delineates 13 squares, which are the starting squares for pieces in the 4 player game. A Halma board consists of 16 x 16 small chequered squares.

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