The History of Halma
An American reworking of an older German game, popular for well over a century as a simple race that's easy to learn but still rewards careful planning.
From Germany to Massachusetts
Halma was created around 1883-1884 by George Howard Monks, a Boston surgeon, who adapted it from an older German game called "Hoppity" (itself inspired by a French game, Salta) after being introduced to it during his medical studies in Germany.
The name "Halma" comes from the Greek word for "jump" or "high jump" - a fitting choice for a game whose whole appeal is chaining jumps across the board - and it was popularized in the United States by the Boston game manufacturer 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; smaller and quicker variants for two players have long been common as well, especially for travel sets and children's editions.
This Version
PaperGames plays a smaller, commonly used 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.