Note: Online Bagh Chal is available for free at Google Chrome Web Store. It is also available at this location.

A simple board game Bagh Chal, was originated and is very popular in Nepal. In the two player game, one player controls four tigers and the other player controls up to twenty goats.

The tigers ‘hunt’ the goats while, the goats attempt to block the tigers’ movements.

Board

It is a five by five point grid as shown below:

Tiger and goat pieces can position themselves at the intersection of the lines. The path and direction of movement are defined by the lines themselves.

Rules:

1. All four tigers are placed on the four corners of the grid (Red dot on the figure below). All goats start off the board.

2.The goats moves first by placing a goat onto a free intersection on the board.

3. Next, it is the tigers’ turn to move to the nearest intersection along a line.

4. Two players alternatively mover t
heir pieces (Goats can not move until all 20 have been put on the board).

5. As in checkers, tigers capture goats by jumping over them to an adjacent free position. Goats try to position such that there is no adjacent free position for tiger to jump over them.

6. When the movements of all the tigers are restricted, goat wins. If tiger manages to capture five goats, tiger wins.

Specific rules of the game

Tigers movement rules:

1. They can start capturing goats any moment after the match has started.
2. They can capture only one goat at a time.
3. They can jump over a goat in any direction, but it must be to an adjacent intersection following any of the lines drawn on the board.
4. A tiger cannot jump over another tiger.

Goats movement rules:

1. They must leave the board when captured.
2. They can not jump over the tigers or other goats.
3. They can only move after all 20
   have been put on the board.

The tigers win once they have captured five goats. Goats try to avoid being captured (jumped over) and they win by blocking the tigers’ moves till they are unable to move.

Note: Sometimes, the game can fall into a repetitive cycle of positions; especially goats may use this resort to defend themselves from being captured. In order to avoid this kind of situation, an additional rule has been established: when all the goats have been placed, it is not allowed to perform any move that causes any situation of the pieces that has been already repeated during the same game.

Further readings:

• Computing Tigers and Goats (A research paper on the game)
• Wikipedia entry