The Traditional Board Game Series Leaflet #47: Bagh Chal

BAGH CHAL
FURTHER INFORMATION by Damian Walker
Further information about Bagh Chal can be found in the following list of
books.
Murray, H. J. R. A History of Board-Games Other than Chess, p. 112.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952.
Parlett, D. The Oxford History of Board Games, p. 194. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1999.

Traditional Board Game Series

3. The goat player takes the position, along a marked line in any
INTRODUCTION & HISTORY first turn. direction, to an adjacent empty
Bagh Chal is an ancient hunt board point.
Placement and Movement
game from Nepal. Its name means 7. Only one piece may occupy
“moving tigers”, and is played by 4. If the goat player has goats in a point at any one time; stacking of
two players, one controlling tigers, hand, he must use his turn to place pieces is not allowed.
the other controlling goats. Some one on any empty point on the
Eating the Goats
have called it the national game of board.
Nepal, though other non-board 5. If the goat player has placed 8. A tiger may sometimes capture,
games also claim that title. or eat, a goat, instead of moving as
It is said that the game is a described in rule 6.
thousand years old. Some sources 9. To eat a goat, the tiger player
Illustration 1: the board for bagh chal. must jump with one of his tigers
say the game originated in the
Himalayas, and others that it came traditional brass sets with cast along a marked line, over an
from further south in India, where pieces still being made and sold adjacent goat, to an empty point
similar games have been played for across the world by Nepali beyond. The goat is then removed
centuries. Whatever its antiquity, craftsmen. from the board and takes no further
the game is still popular today, with part in play.
10. The tiger may not change
HOW TO PLAY direction in the middle of its jump.
A goat is only in danger of being
Bagh Chal is played on the Illustration 3: all possible moves and eaten if on one side it has a tiger,
Alquerque board (Illustration 1) by captures for the two tigers. Note that the top
tiger cannot move diagonally, as no and on the other an empty space.
two players. One has four tigers,
diagonal lines pass through his position. 11. Only one goat may be eaten
while the other has twenty goats. Once all goats are placed, they move in the in any one turn. Multiple jumps are
Henceforth they will be called the same way, but cannot jump. not allowed.
tiger player and the goat player.
all the goats, then he must instead Some examples of moves and
Beginning the Game use his turn to move one of the captures are shown in Illustration 3.
1. The game begins with four tigers goats from its current position, Ending the Game
on the board, one in each corner, as along a marked line in any
direction, to an adjacent empty 12. The tiger player wins when his
shown in Illustration 2.
point. tigers have eaten five goats.
2. The twenty goats are kept in
6. The tiger player in his turn 13. The goat player wins if the
hand by the player who has taken
may move a tiger from its current tigers are trapped and the tiger
their side. Illustration 2: the tigers are set out ready for
play. player has no legal move.

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