Salta (game)

Salta (from Latin " Jump !") Is one of the drafts or the Halma like board game that was founded in 1899 by Konrad Heinrich Büttgenbach ( 1870-1939 ), a musician from Dusseldorf invented. Salta enjoyed 1900 very great popularity at the World Exhibition in Paris, made the game a gold medal, there were international tournaments held in Monte Carlo, Kaiser Wilhelm II could be finished in a lavish Salta game with jeweled tiles, Sarah Bernhardt played against the inventor of Salta, and world chess champion Emanuel Lasker dealt with this game. Salta seemed checkers to displace, but disappeared the interest in the following years again soon, so that Salta games are almost impossible to find today.

The following description is based on Meyer's encyclopedia of 1908.

The rules

Salta is of two people who alternately place their trains, on a chessboard of 100 fields with 15 stones ( green symbols on white stones and red symbols on black stones, the players are called analogous to the chess game, " White " and " Black " ) played. The board position is like chess; that is, each player has at his right hand a white box. However, the designation of the fields is different: As is played only on the black squares, just get them each a number, line by line, 11-15, 21-25 etc. up to the last line, which is numbered from 101 to 105.

The stones are all equivalent and draw one step diagonally forward or backward. They are therefore only as Star 1 - 5 denotes ( 3rd row ), because it is considered to lead them to the enemy camp and - 5 ( the number of the player initially located ), Moon 1-5 (2nd row ) and sun 1 there finally set up in the same rows and number sequence, such that the green suns seek the fields of the red star, the green moons in the fields of the red moon, the stars, the fields of green red suns and vice versa.

Is bound only forward over an enemy piece on an empty field, like Lady, but it remains the enemy stone according to the aim of the game are, a beating does not exist in Salta. Twice to jump on a train is not allowed. A possible jump the player needs to be done, the omission criticizes the opponent by the cry of " Salta". A train or jump must always be kept open to the enemy.

White starts to pull. The winner is the one who fulfills the purpose of the game first, and the number of trains that would have to do for the same purpose nor the other, indicates, is obtained with how many points. After the " tournament " rule each game ends after 120 trains at the latest. Should you still not be stones in their target field, they will be moved there, as if the opponent's stones would not exist. A game is drawn if both players need the same number of trains.

Marketing

Although Salta appeared at a time when there was neither pollsters nor electronic media, it was marketed sent. Tournaments with substantial cash prizes ( in Monaco about 20,000 Swiss francs) and reviews of chess grandmasters brought the game feature articles both in the gazebo as in the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung. Meyers Conversation Lexicon devoted the game a whole page, and it appeared several textbooks and their own German Saltazeitung. Cheap versions of 2.50 Goldmark were available as well as luxury versions of about 400 - Goldmark.

Versions

For the single player solitaire variant Salta solo, when there were brochures with light and extremely difficult workouts and tasks appeared.