Halma

Halma is a famous old Victorian game in which the objective is not to capture your opponent's pieces but instead to hop over them in an effort to get to the opposite side first. "Halma" means "jump" in Greek and the game is the ancestor of a family of games including Chinese Checkers. But the Halma has slightly more depth than Chinese Checkers because there are 8 directions of movement instead of 6.

Click on the picture to enlarge.

Halma is quite difficult to obtain these days and certainly there have been no quality versions of the game since the early 1900s. We have rectified this with our beautiful hand-made board show below. Hand-made to our own commission by an experienced craftshop - these boards are unique to Masters Traditional Games.

For the games enthusiast or any lover of fine wooden objects, the Halma board is faced entirely with inlaid natural wood. The lines and spots are inlaid. We studied a number of antique boards to find the most elegant corner design. In the end, we weren't happy with any of the old designs which are either cluttered or ugly and we came up with our own idea that we feel is the most aesthetic of any board we have yet seen - dark spots for the inner borders and white spots for the 2 outer borders.

The board comes with 13 green and red halma pawns and 19 black and white pawns so that either 2 or 4 people can play. Board dimensions are 44 cm (about 17 inches) square and rules are included. This product contains small parts that represent a choking hazard for small children. Not suitable for children under 5 years old. These boards do not have a special storage container - they will be sent to you in a standard cardboard carton.