LOA is a board game invented in 1969 by Claude Soucie.
An ordinary checkerboard (8x8 squares), 12 black and 12 white pieces are needed; in the standard version of the game the black checkers are placed in two rows along the top and bottom of the board, while the white pieces are placed in two rows at the left and right of the board.
The aim of the game is to move own pieces until they are all in one connected group; two pieces are considered to be connected when they are placed in horizantal, vertical or diagonal adjacent squares.
Black moves first. Each player moves one of his pieces in every turn.
- Pieces are moved in a straight line (vertical, horizontal or diagonal), exactly as many squares as there are pieces of either colour anywhere along the line of movement.
- Moved piece cannot land on a square occupied by one piece of the same colour. However, opponent pieces can be captured by landing on them.
- Moved piece may jump over pieces of the same colour, but not over opponent pieces.
- Game may be won with an own move or an opponent move, if the opponent makes a capture leaving an only group of pieces; particularly, if one player is reduced by captures to a single piece, that is a win for the captured player (a single piece, obviously, makes a single group).
- If a move simultaneously creates a win for both players, the player who has made the move is the winner. -The game ends in a draw if the same position is repeated three times.
Ugolki is a two-player board game, similar to halma, it is said to have been invented in Europe in the late 18th century.
- An ordinary checkerboard (8x8 squares), 16 black and 16 white pieces are needed. Variations on the size of the board and the number of game pieces also exist.
- Both players start off with square arrangements of 16 game pieces in opposing corners of the gameboard.
The aim of the game is to move own pieces to the corner occupied by the opponent at the start of the game.
Players take turns moving one game piece.
A piece may move only into a destination that is empty, provided either of the following conditions are met:
- the destination square is adjacent to the starting square
- the destination square can be reached by consecutive "jumps" over other game pieces belonging to either player.
The game ends when both players have no available moves left. Game pieces are counted within the square bounds of the final formation, and the player with more pieces wins.