Ugolki (Russian: [ʊɡɐɫˈkʲi], Russian: уголки, English: corners) is a two-player board game, similar to halma, that is typically played on an 8×8 grid board with 16 game pieces per player. It is said to have been invented in Europe in the late 18th century. Variations on the size of the board and the number of game pieces also exist.

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8
a8 black circle
b8 black circle
c8 black circle
d8 black circle
a7 black circle
b7 black circle
c7 black circle
d7 black circle
a6 black circle
b6 black circle
c6 black circle
d6 black circle
a5 black circle
b5 black circle
c5 black circle
d5 black circle
e4 white circle
f4 white circle
g4 white circle
h4 white circle
e3 white circle
f3 white circle
g3 white circle
h3 white circle
e2 white circle
f2 white circle
g2 white circle
h2 white circle
e1 white circle
f1 white circle
g1 white circle
h1 white circle
8
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22
11
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Ugolki gameboard and starting setup

Game rules

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Both players start off with square arrangements of 16 game pieces in opposing corners of the gameboard. Each player's goal is to move all their pieces from the starting corner 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 away from the starting location 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.