Play halma online series#

Traditionally Halma pieces have a form similar to chess pawns, so they look more or less like in the image below.

So in 2-player games games there are 38 pieces in total on board. In 4-player games, there are 52 pieces in play. If there are 4 players, each of them uses 13 pieces of one color.If there are 2 players, each of them uses 19 pieces of one color.Pieces in 2 or 4 colors are also needed to play. Additional thick lines in the corners show special areas called “camps”. Traditionally it’s chequered (fields are alternately light and dark). The Halma board is composed of 256 squares (16×16). Pieces can make jumps to achieve this goal faster. The goal of the game is to transfer all of one’s pieces from the starting corner to the opposing corner. Halma is a strategy board game with no element of luck. The rules are simple but you can devote whole life to study its strategy. It’s quite easy to understand why Halma is so successful. Halma was published by various well-known companies from the gaming market, including Parker Brothers, Piatnik, Hexagames, Milton Bradley, Gibsons and many more. The most popular of them (even more popular than Halma) is Trilma, also known as Chinese Checkers. There are more cultural references to Halma, mostly in English and American works.

Play halma online series#

The game of “electronic Halma” is mentioned in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – a comedy science fiction series created by Douglas Adams. Another British poet – Eleanor Farjeon – mentions Halma in her autobiography. The comparisons referring to Halma were used by British poet and writer Mervyn Laurence Peake. Halma is important because it gained quite a lot of popularity and broke into the culture. By the way, few games with similar mechanics emerged at the turn of the 20th century. Monks developed it in 1883 and he was probably inspired by a game named Hoppity. Basilinda is all almost forgotten but Halma became a real hit.

This great doctor loved games and he developed two games himself – Halma and Basilinda. He worked as a Professor of oral surgery at Harvard Dental School, but he was also connected with the department of surgical anatomy at Harvard Medical School. Later he practiced surgery in Boston and was even promoted to surgeon-in-chief in 1910 at Boston City Hospital. He studied medicine at Harvard and after graduation went to Europe for 4-years internship. George Howard Monks (1853-1933) was an interesting man. It requires relatively simple equipment, the rules are simple too, but you could devote your whole life to study its strategy. Halma gave rise to other interesting games, but it’s really great without any modifications. George Howard Monks, who developed a game called Halma, was certainly one of such people. It happens that one man creates an almost perfect game.