Bagh Chal

Alternate Names

Bagh-Chal is a Nepali word that means “Change of Tigers” or “Moving Tigers”. Similar names or transliterations of the name are Bacha Chal, Bagha Chal, BaghChaal, Bhaga Chal, Cordeiros e Tigres, Tigers and Goats, or Tigo.

No. of Players

Two

Equipment

An Alquerque board, four black counters representing tigers and twenty white counters representing goats are required for play.

History

This game is considered the national game of Nepal and originates from there. It is also played in Tibet.

Objective

The goats win if they successfully blockade the tigers from making any legal moves. The tiger wins by capturing enough goats to make their objective impossible.

Play

The board is setup with the four tigers at the corners, as shown above. Alternate turns start with with the white goats. For the first twenty moves by White, he may only place a goat at any vacant intersection on the board. White cannot move until all twenty of his counters are placed but the Black tigers start moving immediately after the first goat is placed. After the twenty white goats are placed, turns continue to alternate and and entail the movement of a single friendly piece to an adjacent vacant intersection. Tigers may capture adjacent goats in any direction by the short jump whenever a jump is available. It is not allowed for tigers to jump over other tigers. Tigers may not capture more than one goat per turn, but capturing is never compulsory.

Variations

Sources