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halma (HAL-muh) - n., a game played on a 16 x 16 square board in which players try to move their counters to the opposite corner.
For 2 or 4 players, and the game-play is very reminiscent of Chinese checkers because, in fact, the latter was created as the 6-person expansion of halma. Halma was invented in 1884 by American George Howard Monks, while expansion was invented in Germany as Stern-halma ("star halma") -- it was first imported to America as hop ching checkers then rebranded in 1928 as Chinese checkers by the Pressman Toy Co. (So, no, not at all Chinese -- in China it's called tiaoqi, "jump chess.") Halma was named by Monk after Greek hálma, a leap, from hállomai, to leap.
---L.
For 2 or 4 players, and the game-play is very reminiscent of Chinese checkers because, in fact, the latter was created as the 6-person expansion of halma. Halma was invented in 1884 by American George Howard Monks, while expansion was invented in Germany as Stern-halma ("star halma") -- it was first imported to America as hop ching checkers then rebranded in 1928 as Chinese checkers by the Pressman Toy Co. (So, no, not at all Chinese -- in China it's called tiaoqi, "jump chess.") Halma was named by Monk after Greek hálma, a leap, from hállomai, to leap.
---L.
