In Solomon's Game each player seeks to capture the opponent's pieces and subsequently remove them
from play.
Each player begins by placing her or his six pieces - coins or checkers - on the
board as shown in the figure below. The letter X marks the spots occupied at the outset by
one player and Z, those occupied by the opposing player.
The following rules give specific details:
- The first player begins by moving a piece along a line to an adjacent vacant point. Thereafter, each player moves either by sliding a piece to an adjacent vacant position or by making a jump. A jump consists of leaping over an adjacent opposing piece and landing on a vacant spot immediately beyond it on the same line. The jumped piece is captured and removed from the board.
- No piece may move or jump backward, but on each horizontal line pieces may move and jump horizontally.
- If a jump is available, it must be taken.
- Upon reaching the "palace" (represented by the domed rectangular spot) on the opponent's side of the board, a piece becomes a "king." As in checkers, it is crowned and may then move and capture backward as well as forward.
- A player wins when an opponent has lost all her or his pieces or has no legal move available. A draw occurs when each player has only a single king left, neither of which can immediately capture the other, or when players repeat a position until they agree that further play is useless.
- Pieces may not make double jumps.
- Pieces may not move along the curves -- only the lines!