Contents: 1 gameboard, 2 sets of 8 large pieces and 8 small pieces (hats) in contrasting colors.
Object:
The player who succeeds in removing all but one of his/her opponent's hats is the winner.
To begin:
Each player receives one set of 8 large and 8 small pieces of the same color. The small pieces are placed on top of the large ones as if they are hats (sombreros). The players sit at the board with the white squares to their right. One of the players places 4 pieces with hats on the first four squares to the right of his/her first row and the other 4 to his/her left on the opponent's first row. The other player does the same with his/her pieces except that he/she does it from left to right. Each player has thus 4 pieces in his/her opponent's territory and 4 in his/her own.
The pieces with the hats on can be moved one square diagonally, vertically, or horizontally. Every turn consists of two of these moves.
Removing the hats:
By placing two of his/her own pieces, one on each side of one or more of his/her opponent's pieces so that a straight line is formed and there are no empty squares in between, a player is entitled to remove the hats from the outflanked pieces. The straight line may be done diagonally, vertically, or horizontally.
The de-hatted pieces may not be moved and may not be used to remove hats. The hat of one piece may, however, jump to another hatless friendly piece by moving next to it from an adjacent square. The jump of a hat is counted as one of the two moves allowed each player per turn whereby the players will have to choose between: the moving of two hatted pieces, the moving of one hatted piece and the jump of a hat, or two hat jumps. Of course the pieces hatted in this fashion will be able to jump and move while the dehatted ones will not.
It is not mandatory to jump a hat onto an adjacent hatless piece. There will be times when a jump of a hat may decide the course of a game.
If near the end of a game each player still has two hatted pieces, the game is ended as undetermined after each player has made 20 further moves without a resolution. The game is then declared a draw.