Moving Tigers Game

Wooden Bagha Chal Games

The moving tigers game (Bagha Chal) is an unusual board game that is very popular in Nepal. It is a game for two players, One has four tigers and the other twenty goats. The tigers try to capture and eat goats while the goats attempt to survive by moving to surround the tigers so that they cannot move.

The rules are simple but the strategy is surprisingly complicated and well balanced. Bagha means tiger and chal means to move.

It is played on beautifully painted wood boards with brass tigers and goats. The playing area is square with square and diagonal lines upon it. On their go pieces can move along lines from one intersection to an adjacent intersection.

How to Play Bagha Chal - the Moving Tigers Game

Tigers are aiming to eat the goats by jumping over them in a similar way that pieces are taken in draughts. As in draughts the taking is in a straight line and there must be an empty space for the tiger to land on. Only one goat may be taken at a time. The tigers win once they have eaten five goats. Goats are trying to avoid being eaten and they win by crowding the tigers in so that they are unable to make a legal move.

In the first part of the game the four tigers are positioned at the corners of the board. Players then have alternate turns with the goat player starting. At his/her turn the goat player puts a goat on any vacant position on an intersection of the lines on the board. On his/her turn the tiger player can move a tiger one place along a line or eat a goat by jumping over it onto a vacant position. Tigers cannot jump more than one goat at a time. Once placed, no goat can be moved until all twenty goats have been placed on a board. In this part of the game the goat player can only defend a goat by placing another goat on the board to prevent a tiger from having a landing place.

How to Play Continued

In the second part of the game after all the goats have been placed on the board each player moves a piece in turn. The tigers continue to try to eat goats and the goats attempt to block the tigers so that they are unable to move at all.

To avoid a stalemate position in a game where a player could move a piece back and forth indefinitely, there is a rule that prohibits repeated moves. In other words, if a goat is moved from position 1 to position 2 and then on their next turn from position 2 to position 1, on the next move it cannot be moved back to position 2.