Halma

Setup

• Players: two: you and a bot. You are gold, in the bottom left corner.
• Pieces: nineteen each on the full 16 by 16 board, or ten each on the 8 by 8 Quick board.
• Goal: move every piece into the camp in the opposite corner.
• First move: you move first.

How to play

1. 1Step. Move one piece to any empty neighbouring square, in any of the eight directions.
2. 2Hop. Jump over an adjacent piece, yours or theirs, onto the empty square just beyond it.
3. 3Chain the hops. After a hop you may hop again with the same piece, in any direction, all in one turn.
4. 4No captures. Pieces that are hopped over stay exactly where they are.
5. 5Fill the camp. Every one of your pieces must be in the far camp to win.
6. 6Don’t build them a ladder. A line of your pieces with single gaps is a highway for the other player’s hops too.

Winning

Move every one of your pieces into the far camp. The first player to do it wins.

Scoring

Our Classic rules: every piece has to reach the far camp. A player who never leaves their own camp keeps the other from filling it, so a game that runs out of turns is a draw. Some tables make you leave your camp within a set number of turns; that is a house rule.

Key terms

Camp:

The corner triangle of squares where a player’s pieces start.

Step:

A move of one square to an empty neighbour.

Hop:

A jump over an adjacent piece onto the empty square beyond it.

Chain:

Several hops in a row by the same piece in one turn.

Ladder:

A line of pieces with single gaps, ready for a chain of hops.

Straggler:

The piece furthest behind, which can lose the race.