The History of Halma
An American reworking of an older English game, popular for well over a century as a simple race that's easy to learn but still rewards careful planning.
From England to Massachusetts
Halma was created in 1883 or 1884 by George Howard Monks, a Boston surgeon, who adapted it from an older English game called "Hoppity".
The name "Halma" comes from the Greek word for "jump" - a fitting choice for a game whose whole appeal is chaining jumps across the board - and the game was first published in the United States by the New York toy and game maker E. I. Horsman starting in 1885.
A Lasting Influence
Halma is usually cited as the direct ancestor of Chinese Checkers, a later game that swapped Halma's square board and 4-player-capable rectangular layout for a six-pointed star board - despite the name, Chinese Checkers has no particular connection to China and wasn't invented there.
The original game supports two or four players and is traditionally played on a 16x16 board, with camps of 19 pieces each for two players and 13 each for four; smaller and quicker two-player variants exist as well.
This Version
PaperGames plays a smaller two-player variant: a 10x10 board with ten pieces and a four-row triangular camp per side, keeping the same movement and chained-jump rules while making for noticeably shorter games than the full 16x16 original.