Halma was created in Great Britain during about 1880 and became popular worldwide very quickly. The original version is played on 16x16 board, BrainKing.com supports smaller boards 8x8 and 10x10 because of display limitations. The rules are the same for both 8x8 and 10x10 versions (except one small detail about a number of moves to remove all own pieces out of own yard - will be described below). At the start position the pieces of both players occupy their yards:
The object of the game is to move all own pieces to the opponent's yard. The player who makes this task first, wins.
Movement of pieces
Each player can move one piece per move. Pieces can move one space in any direction if the target field is empty. The following picture shows an example of a white piece movement:
Pieces can also jump over both own and opponent's pieces. The jumping is not mandatory (unlike in checkers) and, similar to a piece movement, it is possible in all directions. The piece can only jump over a piece which is directly followed by an empty square where the jumping piece will land. The following picture shows an example of a white piece jump:
If the current position enables it, it is allowed to make a multiple jump, see the next picture before and after the jump (the white piece jumped over one white and two black pieces):
Since the piece jumping is not mandatory, the player can decide to stop jumping anytime during the multiple jump by clicking on one of the submit buttons (to finish the move like for other game types).
In Halma, the jumped pieces are not removed from the board, all pieces stay on the board till the end of the game.
How to finish a game
The game is finished if one of the following conditions in fulfilled:
One of the players moved all his/her pieces to the opponent's yard. This player wins the game.
One of the players still has some own pieces at his/her yard and made more than 30 (for 8x8 version) or 50 (for 10x10 version) moves. This player loses the game. The player also loses the game if he/she moves one of his/her pieces back to own yard after the 30th (50th) move. This rule prevents the players to block own yard and avoid the opponent to move his/her pieces there.
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