POLYTAIRE is an expansion of -the ancient solo. game Solitaire and thus it is partly:
a more richly varied game for one player and partly:
a game for two players based on the same principles, but of such a nature that it can be played quite straightforwardly or so strategically that one thinks several moves in advance just as in chess.
THE POLYTAIRE BOARD
is played on a board which like that of Solitaire has 37 squares or holes, but in contrast to Solitaire these are placed in a triangular pattern giving a hexagonal board.
How was I to untie the knot and entice the balls` out into the open?
The solution was quite simple: let the ` aim of the game be to remove as many as possible of one's own balls from the board - a principle which is far simpler and more logical and should be the more obvious solution as it is more closely related to the principle in Solitaire.
It is worth mentioning how richly varied and free from boring interludes is the simple-game which hereby evolved when compared, for example, with Chinese Chequers, especially considering how much smaller area - 37 holes as against, 121.
[From the rulebook]