Talpa is a 2-players game that belongs to Connection Games family. While in most connection games players try to make a chain built of their pieces, in Talpa players remove pieces to make a path of empty spaces.
Initially the board is filled with black and white pieces, forming a checkerboard pattern. A player moves by picking up one of his pieces and capturing a horizontally or vertically adjacent opponent's piece. The captured piece is removed from the board and replaced by the capturing piece. The capture is mandatory if possible. When capturing becomes impossible, players remove one of their stones per turn.
The goal is to "dig" a "tunnel" of orthogonally adjacent empty spaces connecting player's sides of the board.
No draws are possible in Talpa.