REVERSI.
This game requires a special board of sixty-four squares. Two players are each provided with thirty-two men which are red on one side and black on the other. The first player sets a man on any of the four squares in the middle of the board, and then his opponent places another man in the same four squares, each player having his own colour uppermost.
After the first move on each side, the object of each player is so to set his men that they shall be next to an opposing man, but with one of his own men in a direct line on the other side, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, no matter how far off the man in line may be.
When a player succeeds in doing this, he reverses the colour of all the intervening men, turning them to his own side. A man placed at an angle may turn more than one line at a time. As soon as the board is filled, each man counts up his colour, and the one that has the majority wins the game.
HALMA.
This is played on a board with 256 squares, each player having nineteen men of distinguishing colours. At the start the men are placed in an enclosure at the corner of the board, called a “yard.” The object of the player is to get his men out of his own yard and into his adversary’s.
The men move one square at a time, like a king at chess, unless a man gets to the square adjoining that occupied by another man with a space beyond it. Whether the adjoining man is his own or his adversary’s, the player can hop over it into the vacant space beyond, and he can make as many hops as there are men and spaces. This being so, a player will try to make “ladders” with his own men, placing them in a line diagonally, with a space between each, and will then hop his men over them all. As soon as he gets all his men into his adversary’s yard the game is ended. Special directions always come with the apparatus.
GO-BANG.
This is played on a board of 361 squares. Each player has his own coloured counters, and they draw for the first move. Each places a man in turn, and the first to get five men in a row, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, wins the game.